The Fox and the Seedrian
by milesprower06
Summary: A year has passed since the defeat of the Metarex, and Cosmo's seed has grown into a healthy tree. The miracle Tails has been hoping for comes to fruition when the Seedrian emerges on a beautiful summer's day. The only question now is; what next? Contains Taismo and Sonamy.
1. Prologue

Sonic couldn't remember a time when he felt so angry at himself. This rising heat built up in his chest and the back of his throat as he not so much saw but heard his best friend on his hands and knees at his feet get torn to pieces from the inside by his grief.

"Cosmo... Cosmo..." Tails' barely whispered out hoarsely.

Hearing the fox's breaths come to him in shorter bursts got the hedgehog to open his eyes and look down at him, noticing that his arms were beginning to quiver, and struggle to keep him up. Sonic knelt down, and caught Tails by his armpits just before he passed out and collapsed completely to the floor. As he began to pick him up, he noticed the white seed slip out from between his fingers. With the utmost care, he carefully picked it up from the deck and kept it safe as he headed for the nearest entrance back inside.

Sonic turned to head to the medical bay, and ran into just as he was looking for when Chris came around the corner.

"Oh my gosh, is he okay?"

"I'm not sure. Let's get him to the medical bay."

Chris barely had time to nod as Sonic ran by and trailed him to the medical bay which was one floor down. When they came through the door, Sonic laid him on the bed while Chris went to the PA panel on the wall.

"Hey everyone, Sonic and I have got Tails down in the medical bay." He announced, in case everyone else began to worry, before going over to the patient readout panel, and began conducting medical scans on the unconscious fox. Meanwhile, Sonic went over to one of the side counters where microscopes and other research equipment was kept. Tails had built the Typhoon to be prepared, even for a rather unexpected voyage out in space.

By the time Chris had conducted his initial scans, the observation room was crammed with everyone else aboard.

"Poor Tails..." Cream mused, leaning up against the glass.

"Chao chao..." Cheese agreed,

"He's... He's not comatose, is he?" Amy asked fearfully.

"Heart rate... Good. Blood pressure... Slightly elevated but returning to normal. Body temperature... 37 degrees." Chris read out the results of his scans. He made his way through the others, passed through the observation door, and leaned over Tails with a small flashlight, and gently opened one eyelid.

"No coma. He's got rapid eye movement. He's just sleeping. Deeply. It must've done quite a number on him..."

No one needed specifics. They had all seen what just happened.

"I don't want to make the situation any more dire, but I don't trust Eggman as far as I can throw him, and the last thing we need is for him to beat us home. He's already got a head start, and our main power source is in pieces after that blast. The Driver Cannon is a burnt out melted heap too." Knuckles reported.

"Then that's one less thing we need power for. Everyone stay here, on the mess deck, or the bridge. I'll start cutting power to non-essential systems and unoccupied decks, see if we can start the Warp Field Driver with that. If that's not enough, we'll see how many rings we have left." Chris instructed, before leaving the medical bay to begin preparations.

"I'll stay here, keep an eye on him, wait for him to wake up." Sonic said, turning back from the adjacent counter, holding a petri dish.

"Is that a... Seed? Where did that come from?"

"I... I used every bit of Chaos Energy I had left to try and save her. This was all I got."

No one said anything, as tears threatened the eyes of several of them. Cosmo hadn't been the only loss; Shadow wasn't anywhere to be found either, and was the reason they had gotten away safely from the explosion.

"Look everyone... Try to get something to eat or some sleep, even if you don't feel you need it right now. This has taken a lot out of everyone. Constantly worrying about Tails won't do you or him any good. He's pulled himself through a lot, and he'll pull through this too."

With that, Sonic pulled up a chair next to Tails' bed, and sat silently, setting the petri dish gently on the end table next to him. One by one, everyone else filtered out, leaving the hedgehog alone with his thoughts and one silent, unconscious fox.

 _'Chaos is power... Power is enriched by the heart...'_

He had thought of Cosmo... Happy and healthy, when he threw that orb of healing light towards the remains of the tree. The chaos emeralds turned thoughts into power. So what was it? Was the power not enough, or were his thoughts and heart not enough?

"I'm sorry, pal. I know what she meant to you. I'm so sorry..." He whispered to his friend next to him while he stared at the inanimate seed resting safely on the table.

He wanted to keep telling himself that they didn't have a choice, but they did; Cosmo or the universe. It was an impossible choice; especially to the one laying next to him who had pulled the trigger. But it was still a choice. One they would have to learn to live with one way or another.

He couldn't remember the last time a victory felt so hollow.

He was taken out of his train of thought when the lights in the ceiling noticeably dimmed. Chris' voice came over the PA system.

"I've begun power transfer procedures. Again, everyone please keep to the bridge, mess deck, and medical bay. It's gonna get pretty cold everywhere else."

Sonic sat in silence. He wasn't sure how much time passed, but he felt the ship vibrate momentarily as it passed into a warp field. They had done it, and would be home in a few days.

"Hey, Sonic."

Sonic looked up, and saw Amy coming through from the observation area carrying two trays of food.

"Thought you might want something to eat. He's still...?"

"Not a peep. Not even a murmur... Thanks." He said, accepting the tray of two chili dogs and a glass of milk. He looked up at the clock and saw four hours had passed. Amy set the second unneeded tray on the table next to the petri dish that contained Cosmo's seed.

"I can't even imagine what that must have felt like..." Amy said sadly, looking at the sleeping fox next to Sonic. Her gaze slid over to the seed resting on the table. "What do you think it means?"

Sonic saw where she was looking.

"I wish I knew, Ames. I really do. Because I don't know what I'm gonna say to him when he wakes up."

When he finished his pair of chili dogs, he gave a yawn.

"You've been through a lot too. Go get some rest. I'll keep an eye on him for now."

Sonic nodded and got to his feet, picking up the other tray, and made his way back to the mess hall, the usually brightly-lit corridors now dim and somber. It probably wasn't doing any good to the general morale aboard the ship, but it was getting them home. He couldn't argue with that.

Amy wasn't the only one to take over watching Tails. Chris had gotten a few hours sleep after they got under way, then relieved her, and Cream came in and took her turn. Sonic came back in at the 18-hour mark, and he still had hadn't stirred.

Sonic awoke to a hand on his shoulder, and saw that he had dozed off in the chair. Super transformations did a number on the body, and it usually took more than one nap to recover. He saw Amy had come in with another tray of food. He looked over at Tails. No change.

"It's been 24 hours... Nothing?"

As if on cue, Tails took in a quick breath as his eyes slowly opened. His eyes glanced around, and knew where he was, and his gaze went to Amy and Sonic at his bedside.

"Hey, buddy. You feeling okay?"

Sonic mentally kicked himself for phrasing the question like that. What did he think?

"The lights?" Tails asked at a whisper, also noticing the dimmed lights.

"With the Master Emerald out of commission, Chris had to cut the power from a lot of the ship to get enough power for warp drive. We should be home in a day or two."

Tails' gaze continued moving left, and fell on the seed safely inside the petri dish, and everything came bubbling back up to the surface.

"Are you hungry?" Amy asked, offering him the tray of food.

"No, I'd like to be alone." Tails whispered, barely holding back the flood of emotions rushing forward.

"Okay, I'll come back later, hun." Amy told him with a sympathizing smile, which he didn't notice or ignored. When she turned to leave, he closed his eyes as the tears flooded over and ran down to his pillow, his lips trembling.

Not having any words, Sonic silently place his hand on his best friend's left heaving shoulder. Sniffling, Tails reached his quivering opposite hand over, and brushed Sonic's hand off of him without a word.

Sonic got a sharp stinging pain in his chest, and felt like he had been punched in the gut. His stomach churning, he slowly and silently got up out of the chair, and walked out of the medical bay. Amy was at the corner of the hallway when she heard him leave as well, and turned to see a look of defeat on his face she had never seen before.

"Sonic...?" She asked, turning and walking back towards the hedgehog, as he leaned against the wall opposite the entrance to the medical bay. He placed a hand on the wall to support himself, and that wasn't going to be enough.

He balled his hand into a fist and slammed it into the wall as his legs gave out from under him and he dropped to his knees. Amy rushed forward, knelt down next to him and set the tray down. She was beside herself when she saw tears fall from Sonic's closed eyes as his shoulders heaved. She scooted up next to him, and pulled him into a hug, which he returned tightly.

"He's gonna get through this..." She told him as confidently as she could, still half-shocked at the fact that the most confident and unshakable person she knew had broken down in the first place.

"He's gonna get through this..." She repeated, to Sonic as much as herself. "Just wait and see."


	2. Chili Dogs, Lemonades, and Resurrections

**The Fox and the Seedrian: A Taismo Story**

 **Chapter One: Chili Dogs, Lemonades, and Resurrections**

"Well, here's to one year, bro. If I hadn't been up here two hundred times since, I would never recognize the place." Sonic toasted, raising his glass of lemonade up to the center of the table, where it was met by three others as Tails, Amy, and Cream raised theirs to meet his. There were clinking glasses all around the circular patio table that had been placed a short distance out from the rear of the gargantuan building that served as the hangar for the X-Tornado.

"Thanks, Sonic." Tails replied before taking a gulp of lemonade, washing down the chili dog he had just finished. It had been quite a year since returning home from their journey through the galaxy. The first few weeks had been a mess. After Cosmo died, he fell into depression, started to shut his friends out, and blamed Sonic for everything that happened. Then when he had started to restore his backyard, and planted Cosmo's seed, things began looking up again. Sonic had visited him up here everyday, seeing how he was doing and how his project was coming along. A month later, he apologized profusely to his best friend for the things he had said and how he had treated him, and the hedgehog forgave him without a second thought. It had been a good day for both of them.

Tails set his glass of lemonade down and glanced out to the centerpiece of his backyard; the pink-leafed tree that had been the seed Sonic had given him one year ago. It looked identical to the one Cosmo had transformed into at the climax of the battle with Dark Oak. It was the only way to cease his invulnerability and leave him open to attack before he wiped out all non-plant life in the galaxy. Unfortunately, it also came at a high cost; Cosmo's life. Luckily, his hard gardening work had paid off immensely, the dry and arid dirt patch was, like Sonic remarked, now unrecognizable, and Cosmo's tree had considerably less bleak surroundings than it had a year ago at galactic coordinates 0-0-0.

Not only that, but when summer turned to autumn, and that likewise gave way to winter, Tails knew he had no ordinary tree on his hands, because it never stopped blooming, never lost its leaves. Not only that, but when Tails inspected it more closely during a particularly freezing blizzard, he found that the bark was warm to the touch, and the roots also kept the surrounding soil and grass warm and full of nutrients. Snowfall never accumulated on the leaves, branches, trunk, or yard; it was as if the tree and surrounding area was in an eternal spring.

Lastly, it hardly resembled a tree that was barely a year old. Its growth had accelerated considerably; Tails recorded inches gained daily, and now was bigger than a tree thirty years old or more. Tails had promised to keep himself open to the possibility of it being just a tree so he wouldn't slip back into depression if Cosmo never returned, but the way it completely ignored the weather cycle made him lean towards his greatest hope.

"He's right. Who knew you had such a green thumb under all that grease?" Amy quipped, referring to his lifelong passion for all things mechanical. Tails smiled in return. Sure, he had appreciated a great view as much as any nature lover would, but after he met Cosmo, it had gone to a whole other level; especially when he was given that seed. Now he researched plants as much as he had fusion coils, jet engines, and every screw, nut and bolt in between the two.

When they returned home, aside from cultivating the seed and hopping in the X-Tornado whenever Eggman stirred up trouble, Tails also had to figure out what to do with the undoubtedly broken-in Blue Typhoon, which had taken considerable damage not only in the skirmishes with the Metarex fleets, but in the final battle with Dark Oak. If he was honest with himself, he had made almost no progress with it. With how preoccupied he had been with his backyard, he spent maybe two hours a week on-board, patching hull breaches, running diagnostics, and wondering if he should perhaps look into alternative power sources other than Chaos Energy. When he had landed and disembarked, it was a full two months before he stepped on it again; too many memories with Cosmo that he hadn't been ready to confront yet. Undoubtedly the biggest job would be the entire replacement of the Sonic Driver, which had been reduced to a molten heap of slag from the final blast that had ended the Metarex threat. Lately, he had more time to devote to the repair of the Typhoon, as his backyard was now healthy, past infancy, and needed less attention on a daily basis. For the past year, he had managed to land it on the beach below the Emerald Hills. He would probably be able to squeeze it back into the dry dock it had launched from, but that would have taken time, and he didn't want to expose his yard, or the tree, to that kind of jet wash at all; the Typhoon's dry dock was barely one hundred yards away from where his new garden was now. He had even considered dismantling it and designing a new one with Chris, before he discovered that the boy had to leave in a hurry.

"Anyone want seconds?" Tails asked, picking up his plate to go over to the grill for more chili dogs and chips.

"Chao, chaochaochao!" Cheese exclaimed, fluttering his wings excitedly, floating around Cream's head.

"Is that a 'yes', Cream?" Tails asked the Chao's owner.

"No, I think that was a, 'Look, the tree is glowing.'" The rabbit replied. This put all eyes on the tree, which had indeed developed a white aura around it's body and branches.

* * *

Cosmo stood on a field of grass, surrounded by an endless expanse of white no more than twenty or thirty feet out. She had spent the past year in this ethereal plane of existence, but she knew exactly where she was; Tails' backyard. She knew she couldn't be seen in a physical sense, but what allowed her to see her surroundings was the plant itself; that seed that her consciousness had been reformed into when Sonic had used his chaos energy to keep her from passing into whatever had awaited the rest of the seedrians. She was barely able to make out a table with four chairs a short distance away. Tails was there; she could hear his voice, along with other voices; it had to be Sonic and his friends.

It had started as a sea of black, she had no idea where she was, or how much time had passed; for a time she thought that this was what happened when one died. But then the first patch of soil came; the first thing she could make out as the sea of black gave way to white. For a couple weeks, all she saw was a window, and she heard Tails' voice around her every few hours. At this point, she knew what had happened; the seed had given her a single connection to the physical plane of existence. Tails had cultivated the seed, and it was growing. As it grew, so did her connection to the existence she had sacrificed herself for. She began to see her body again as Tails kept careful watch over the growing stem and leaves. Another couple weeks had gone by, and then the plant had been moved to his backyard, and still the sea of white slowly expanded and gave her a greater view of what surrounded the plant. Now, she could see almost all of Tails' yard and garden. She knew the time was quickly approaching when she could finally pass through the barrier that separated the ethereal from the physical. She could feel it.

She still hadn't seen him since that fateful day at coordinates 0-0-0. All she heard was his voice; she never saw him in his yard, nor anyone he talked to; she was fairly confident that she heard Sonic here almost every day as well.

"You were the last seedrian, my daughter, and now, perhaps, you will be the first. Are you ready for that?"

She heard her mother, Earthia, at her side; a glowing white featureless silhouette; a spirit that had long since passed on.

"It's not about being first or last, mother. It's to be with him. He repeatedly stood against a superior opponent to protect me. He and his friends confronted Dark Oak directly instead of risking my hearing and eyesight. Shooting me to ensure the defeat of the Metarex was the hardest thing he's ever had to do. He proclaimed his love, and he's spent more of the past year in this garden than anywhere else, ensuring the very best for my seed, hoping that one day I would be able to come back. I want to spend my life returning that love."

"Will you Join with him?" Earthia asked.

Cosmo whipped her head around, blushing at the white glowing spirit.

"Mother! I... I don't know! I haven't thought of that. Even if it were possible... This is his home, which means his culture, his traditions. I don't want him to change those for me."

Her mother's spirit nodded in understanding.

"Well, you have fulfilled your destiny, Cosmo. The rest of your 'new' life is yours to live and yours alone. Best of luck to you, my daughter."

With that, the white spirit of her mother slowly faded from view, as Cosmo took a step forward. She knew it was time.

"Anyone want seconds?" She heard Tails' voice over by the table. She took another step, reached out, and felt an invisible barrier. She began to press against it, gently at first, then more firmly, and it began to lose its resistance.

"Chao, chaochaochao!"

"Was that a 'yes', Cream?"

"No, I think that was a 'Look, the tree is glowing.'"

She reached out with her other hand, and began to part the barrier as if it were a heavy curtain. As she did, the white nothingness began to fade and give way to an expanse of clear blue sky and rolling hills.

"Tails? Tails? Everyone?" She called out, taking another step forward, the barrier allowing her to slowly pass through as if there were a hole made for her form alone.

"Oh my gosh, look!"

* * *

"Tails? Tails? Everyone?"

Was that...?

"Oh my gosh, look!" Amy exclaimed, pointing at the now intensely glowing tree. The bark was now almost blinding white; nearly to the point where they had to bring their arms up to shield their eyes; then out of the white, came a pale yellow hand, then a second, followed by the gold wrist bands, green sleeves, and white, green-tipped petal-like pieces of a skirt; attire they recognized all too well.

Tails was frozen where he stood by his grill, plate and tongs in hand, unable to move, barely able to breathe, as a figure slowly began to emerge from the brilliant white trunk of the tree.

"Cosmo!" The three figures at the table exclaimed.

The seedrian girl passed completely through the tree, then as the intense white glow quickly faded, she wobbled and fell to her hands and knees, unaccustomed to the weight and balance needed for being in a physical form again. She heard several sets of footsteps approach through the yard, and then looked up to see the blurry figures of Amy, Cream, Cheese, and Sonic surrounding her.

"I can't believe it! It worked! It actually worked! He's gonna be thrilled! Hey Tails! Tails! Uh, Tails?" Amy asked, and Cosmo's vision began to slowly focus from the blur she had emerged with. She tried to look through the pairs of legs surrounding her, and saw an orange figure, laying on the ground about thirty feet away. Sonic ran up to him.

"Well, he _will_ be thrilled. As soon as we wake him up."


	3. Peas, Pods, Foxes, and Hens

**The Fox and the Seedrian, A Taismo Story**

 **Chapter Two: Peas, Pods, Foxes, and Hens**

"Tails... Tails... Come on back, pal."

The fox groaned as he heard Sonic's muffled voice as feeling slowly returned to his body and the blackness gave way to the three pairs of eyes hovering over him. He also felt what could only be Cheese tugging on his muzzle.

"Sonic...?"

"You fainted, buddy. Luckily you fell back on your tails, so you didn't hit your head hard... Or knock the grill over for that matter."

Tails glanced to his left to see that he had just missed the grill, and saw his plate and tongs were on the grass next to him as the past few minutes came rushing back to him.

"The tree... The tree is it—"

"The tree is perfectly alright..." Sonic began to assure him. "And you've got someone here who's been waiting a long time to see you again."

Sonic, who was standing to his left, looked back down towards the yard. Amy and Cream were directly in front of him, and they both stepped to the side simultaneously to reveal the seedrian right behind them.

"Tails..." Cosmo greeted with a gentle smile. She had appeared the way she was last seen on the Typhoon; except for one thing; the red amulet on her chest was no longer there, its presence having already served its purpose.

The fox leaned up as emotions quickly built up inside him.

"Cosmo... Cosmo...!" Tails replied, struggling to get to his feet. Before getting his footing, he stumbled towards her as tears welled up in his eyes. "You're... You're here..." His voice shook, he spread his arms to embrace her, but the torrent of emotions crashing into his mind wouldn't let him keep his balance, and he tripped and fell to his knees directly in front of her. Cosmo knelt down in return and accepted the hug as he begun sobbing with joy.

"You're here... It worked..." He cried, his hands clinging to Cosmo's shoulders as she began to rub his back. Cream and Amy were getting choked up at the scene, and even Sonic found himself touched at the reunion.

"Yes it did. You did a great job. Your garden is beautiful." Cosmo said, parting from the embrace to kiss him. "Thank you so much. And thank you, Sonic. You started this process." Cosmo said, looking up at the hedgehog with a smile.

"Don't mention it. It's great to have you back, Cosmo." Sonic told her, giving her a thumbs up.

Tails sniffled, trying to get himself under control.

"I'm really sorry. I'm such a mess right now..." Tails said, continuing to cry happily.

"I don't think anyone's gonna hold that against you, sweetheart." Amy said, coming over next to him and helping him and Cosmo to their feet as the fox wiped his tears away with his hand. Sonic ran to get another chair for their sudden fifth guest, and set it next to Tails' chair and Cosmo took her seat next to him.

"Cosmo, I'm so sorry, I have no idea what to offer someone who just came back to life out of a tree. Would you like anything to eat or drink?" Amy asked, assuming the hosting duties from Tails who was understandably too emotional to do so at the moment.

"The sunlight is enough for now, but I'll happily drink what everyone else is having, thank you." Cosmo replied, taking hold of Tails' hand in hers as he began taking deeper breaths to start to calm himself down. Within another few seconds, Sonic had gone back inside and come back around with another glass for Cosmo's lemonade.

"So do you know where you were this past year? Were you in some spirit world, or were you actually the seed that came from the Chaos Regeneration?" Sonic asked her, pouring her a drink from the pitcher in the center of the table.

"I think it was a bit of both," Cosmo replied, her lips puckering a little from her sip of lemonade. "I saw myself as the plant, slowly growing over the last year, and I heard anyone close by, but I could never see them, and I could never speak back to them, especially you, Tails."

Tails' cheeks tinted pink and smiled bashfully, the tears having stopped for now. He had lost track of how many times he had talked to the plant as if it were Cosmo; which it turned out, was exactly what had happened.

"Then as the tree grew strong enough, I just felt that I now had enough strength to break through, and... Well, here I am."

"I have no idea how I wouldn't go out of my mind from the isolation and boredom." Sonic admitted.

"When you're dealing with the ethereal instead of the physical, your mind is the exact opposite of isolated. I felt every molecule in that tree, as it grew every day. Not one moment was the same as the last."

"You make a plain ol' physical existence sound dull by comparison." Sonic joked.

"On the contrary, it's what I've longed to return to the most. To touch, smell, and taste again... And be with those I care about the most." Cosmo finished, looking over to Tails and squeezing the hand she held.

"I'm pretty sure I'm still in a fog here. I still can't believe you're really here." Tails admitted.

"It'll settle eventually, buddy. Just one question; where's she going to stay? You've renovated every single inch of this place, except that twelve-by-twelve shack you call a living space. There's barely enough room for you in there." The hedgehog quipped.

"Yeah... You've, uh, actually got a point there, Sonic. I've been focusing so much on this yard that I never really thought about where you were going stay if you came back." Tails said, looking over to Cosmo.

"I'm sure you'll figure something out, Tails." The seedrian replied.

"Yeah, and until you do, you two can come down and live with us!" Amy exclaimed!

"What?" Came the unison reply from Tails, Cosmo, and Sonic.

"Well why not? Sonic, that guest bedroom hasn't been used since I furnished it back when I bought the place. It's got room for both of them, and it's ten times more comfortable than anything he's got in there." Amy realized what she had said, and immediately offered a "No offense," to the fox.

"None taken, it's true." He replied, unfazed.

"I wouldn't want to be a bother. I'm sure whatever Tails can put together up here will more than suffice." Cosmo interjected.

"Nope, I'm afraid I must insist. The last thing you're going to be is a bother. It's gotten a little boring with just Sonic around there."

"Hey!"

"So what do you say, you two? Care to fire up the X-Tornado and get us down there? I'll get your dishes put up while you get it ready."

They all knew there was no arguing with Amy once her mind was made up. It looked like they were going to be house guests on the outskirts of Topaz Harbor down by the Sapphire Sea until Tails could get his "shack" renovated. By which he meant completely tear down and make a building suitable for two.

"Sounds like a plan. Thank you, Amy." Tails said, getting up and going with Cosmo around to the front of the hangar.

"What happened to the Blue Typhoon?" Cosmo asked as Tails pressed the side panel to open the large hangar doors, revealing the X-Tornado.

"We landed that about 650 yards to the south, on the beach not far from where we launched it. I haven't really had the chance to work on it since we got back." Tails answered, walking into the hangar and up to his gold-plated jet.

"I'd be happy to help with it. I know it took quite a beating before... Well, before the end... There." She offered, pausing a couple times. Talking about one's death proved awkward. Tails offered no reply as he climbed into the cockpit, so Cosmo assumed that even though she was now here again, it was still quite a sensitive subject, so she didn't mention anything further while Tails went through his pre-flight checks.

Fifteen minutes later, the X-Tornado was out on the runway, and the dishes and grill had been cleaned and put away. Cosmo took the seat behind Tails, and Amy and Cream took the rear pod, with Sonic of course opting to leg it, and would no doubt beat them there by five minutes.

"Alright everyone, hang on. Here we go! X-Tornado, takeoff!"

* * *

By the time the X-Tornado landed at the closest clearing to Amy's house, late afternoon gave way to evening as the sun started it's final descent towards the horizon. Sonic and Amy gave them the dime tour of the beautiful home they had created together; of course when Sonic said as such, Amy had to clarify that by that, he meant she had created it, and they were together. They were shown the guest room they would be sharing; it was a warmly lit rustic bedroom, with a full size bed, closet, and two night stands.

Since the picnic in his backyard, it had been nothing but awkward smiles and blushes between the two of them. Tails had been dreaming of this day for so long, that he didn't know quite where to begin, while Cosmo was wondering where she would fit in on a new planet, in a new culture, with new traditions; plus, she felt like she had stepped on some hollow ground, so to speak, when she mentioned what had happened at 0-0-0 before takeoff a couple hours earlier.

Not long after that, the inviting smell of dinner had lured them all to the kitchen, where a scrumptious looking vegetable stew had been prepared.

"Again, thank you so much, Amy." Cosmo said, polishing off the last of her meal.

"You don't have to keep mentioning it, Cosmo. You've already thanked me a dozen times." Amy said with a chuckle, starting to feel a bit embarrassed for the girl.

 _'Not like you didn't bring this on yourself.'_ Sonic thought with a smirk, Amy having been so insistent on having them down here as guests for the foreseeable future.

* * *

As Sonic and Amy did the dishes, they had a perfect view of the backyard, where Tails and Cosmo were laying in the backyard, gazing up at the night sky. They had been there ever since dinner had wrapped up.

"I don't think I could be any happier for them." Amy said, rinsing the last plate she currently held and putting it on the drying rack as she looked out at the duo occasionally talking and giggling.

"They're two peas in a pod, that's for sure." Sonic said, who was currently taking the dishes on the rack, drying them with a towel, then putting them away in the cabinet.

"And what would you call us?" Amy asked., beginning to drain the kitchen sink, looking over at Sonic as he took it, wiped it down, then put it away, before drying his hands and picking up a gold jeweled ring that had been resting over on the spice rack, and put it back on his right ring finger.

"I'd say we are... Two foxes in a hen house?" Sonic said without a smidgen of confidence. His answer caused Amy to snicker.

"Oh, those poor hens."

"Sorry if I don't have pages and pages of those to list off." He replied in defense, slipping a hand around her waist and pulling her closer for a kiss, causing her to blush.

"Quite a day." She commented, glancing out again at the reunited couple in her backyard.

"That's for sure. What do you say..." Sonic began, coming in for another kiss. "...That we go upstairs and make it quite a night?"

"Oh..." Amy said, blushing even more at Sonic's bedroom eyes. "You know, you're quite the romantic when you want to be... You should do it more often. Because it's one of the things that you don't do faster than anyone else." Amy replied, running a finger across his left ear and down his lower quill, and getting a blush in return from her fiance. She ran her finger around the tip and brought it back around up to his cheek and chin, before stepping back and turning around towards the patio screen door.

"Alright you two lovebirds, we're off to bed. Don't fall asleep out there, or the bugs are gonna have quite the overnight snack." She called out to the budding couple in her yard.

"We won't, thanks! Good night!" Tails called back.

Tails glanced back and saw the two hedgehogs head towards the living room and went upstairs, and then back to the Seedrian to his left. His heart skipped a beat just by looking at her.

"The stars are so beautiful, even from down here." Cosmo said, then glanced to her right and found Tails staring at her instead of the sky.

" _You're_ so beautiful, Cosmo." Tails said, both their cheeks getting hints of pink. "I wanted to say that back on the Blue Typhoon after your party, and I was too nervous to say it. I can't believe I didn't. I'm so happy that I have the chance to say it now. You're the most beautiful sight I've ever seen."

"I... I really wish I knew what to say other than, thank you so much, Tails. I hope it doesn't take me too long to get better at this romance thing. You're the most special person to me, and I'm truly looking forward to a life together with you."

The night air was warm tonight, so he had to admit that there was a very real possibility of falling asleep out here, and Amy was right; that wouldn't be fun come morning.

"Well, what do you say we go see how comfortable that guest bed is? Because while I'd love to fall asleep with you out here, Amy's right, who knows how many bug bites we'd get out here?"

Nodding silently, the two of them got up and headed inside, with Tails shutting the sliding glass door behind them, never letting go of Cosmo's hand. They walked down to the guest bedroom on the first floor, shutting off lights as they went. With the house dark, they entered their bedroom, and climbed into bed under the blankets. They wished each other sweet dreams, kissed each other good night, and as Tails fell asleep in the girl's arms, he knew there was no other place in the universe he'd rather be right now.


	4. How To Corner A Hedgehog

The Fox and the Seedrian, A Taismo Story

Chapter Three: How to Corner a Hedgehog

Tails woke up to the sound of birds coming through the bedroom window, which was open a few hairs. With a yawn and a stretch, he sat up, rubbing his eyes, then looked to his right and saw that Cosmo wasn't there. Afraid for a split second that he had dreamed the whole thing, his panicking mind came back down to earth when he realized that he was still in Amy's guest bedroom.

Not to mention that Cosmo's shoes were by the bedroom door.

With another yawn, he hopped out of bed, threw on his socks, shoes, and gloves, and went out to the hallway, where his nose immediately detected the smell of bacon and eggs. Stepping into the kitchen, he saw Amy at the stove top.

"Morning, sleepyhead. I was about to come get you. We figured you needed the extra sleep, seeing as how yesterday did quite a number on you."

"Sonic sleeping in, too?" Tails asked, the morning grogginess beginning to lift.

"Yep. He had quite the night too..." Amy said, flipping the fried eggs she had in the pan. "Breakfast will be ready soon. Cosmo's out in the back, hun."

Tails walked by the kitchen table with another yawn, and slid open the patio door, where he saw Cosmo standing just off the concrete tiled patio, taking in the morning sun while standing barefoot in the grass that was wet with morning dew.

"Good morning, Tails. Sorry, I didn't want to wake you. You were sleeping pretty heavily." Cosmo greeted. Tails came over for a hug and kiss, then took an educated guess as to what she was doing.

"Do you really get all the energy you need for the day from photosynthesis?"

"If that's your word for collecting energy from water and light, then not quite. I asked Amy what an average morning routine is like for someone on Mobius, and I suppose you could call this my, um, what did she call it... Ah, my cup of coffee. I still enjoy food and drink as much as the next person. I just really never got to do this because of where I grew up."

"Right. Not so easy feeling the morning dew between your toes on the hull of a colony ship."

"Breakfast! Come and get it!" The two of them heard Amy call, loud enough so Sonic would be able to hear it upstairs. Cosmo took a few moments to dry her feet, then stepped back inside with Tails, sitting next to him on the left side of the table. By the time Amy had brought everything to the table, Sonic had groggily come downstairs, and Cosmo noticed something.

"Good morning, Sonic. That's a nice ring, I don't remember seeing that on you before."

With a yawn, Sonic held his hand up.

"Yeah, guess that's one of the things we glossed over. Amy figured she'd make things interesting for the two of us by proposing."

"What is 'proposing'? It sounds like a very significant event." Cosmo asked.

"It absolutely is, for those involved, close friends, and especially the couple. It's when a dating couple commits to marriage, commit to each other, and if they like, have children." Tails explained to her.

"Ah, it's like Joining!"

"Joining?" Tails asked.

"When two seedrians commit to each other and each other alone, it was called Joining. They shared possessions, wealth, land, and produced offspring. At least those were the stories I was told on the colony ship." Cosmo replied.

"Yeah, that sounds pretty much like the exact same thing. I was able to really surprise Sonic." Amy chipped in, almost sounding like she was bragging about that last part.

"Hm. Joining wasn't really meant to be surprising. For most couples it was expected. In historic times they were even arranged, so land and wealth could be gained to increase one's social standing."

"Yeah, there were cultures on Mobius that did that too. Here, it's mostly done out of love and affection for another, though; the one proposing sometimes tries to make it as unexpected and extravagant as they can, maybe as a sign of how exciting and spontaneous a committed relationship with them can be. Others wait until they're sure they're ready to handle a long-term commitment, until they're confident that their significant other will accept, or until they're sure they can support the person they propose to. It all depends on those involved." Amy continued.

"Ah, I see. I'm not sure how accurate the stories I've been told are. Even before the time of the Metarex, war had engulfed our home for many years; I cannot be sure what is accurate and what's been lost to history."

While this conversation had been going on, Amy had gotten everyone's plates served up with fried eggs, bacon, and corn beef hash, and served orange juice in their glasses.

"So how did you do it, Amy?" Cosmo asked.

The look on Sonic's and Tails' faces, 'Oh joy, she gets to share this story again,' was the polar opposite of Amy's expression, 'Alright, I get to share this story again!'

"Well, it was about six months ago, almost to the day..."

* * *

Amy awoke to a buzzing in her ear, and she immediately knew what to do. She hadn't gotten a lot of deep sleep because of what she had been planning since last night. She removed the small device from her ear that she had received from Tails; the silent vibrating alarm allowed her to get up at a specific time and avoid waking Sonic.

This had to be a surprise.

Slipping out from under the covers very slowly to not disturb the sleeping blue hedgehog next to her, she slid out of bed and opened the drawer of her oak night stand, pulling out a hinged velvet box the size of her palm, and pocketed it in her night robe. She tiptoed over to Sonic's side of the bed, and there, on the floor on his side, were his signature red and white-striped shoes. Moving silently, she bent over, picked them up, and moved as quickly and quietly as she could out of the room, closing the door as much as was possible without making a sound.

Not willing to make any more noise than she had to, even the further she got from their bedroom, she moved down the stairs like a ninja, got into the kitchen, and turned on the overhead light. She set his shoes on the table, and went over to the utility drawer, where she had everything she needed...

* * *

Sonic's sense of smell was what woke him up today. There was an extremely inviting scent wafting in through the open door. He flung the covers off, and swung his legs around to find... Nothing on the carpet. He rolled his eyes, he must have tracked some dirt in last night after his skirmish with Eggman's latest robot. He could have sworn that he wiped his feet on the mat before coming in, but it wouldn't be the first time he'd forgotten. Amy must have taken them to brush them off before he put them on and track even more downstairs. He slipped clean socks on before heading out into the hall and downstairs. Strangely, he didn't see any of what he supposedly tracked in on his way down. As he got to the first floor and neared the kitchen, the aroma only got stronger. He turned the corner to the kitchen, and was not expecting what he saw. On the table, was a steaming hot chili and cheese egg omelet, and on the chair in front of it, rested his shoes... And Amy had done far more than take them and brush the soles off.

He picked them up, and took a closer look. They had been flawlessly buffed and shined. Even the gold buckles on the side shimmered spectacularly... They looked brand new.

"Hey Ames, what's the occasion?" He called, picking up the shoes and got ready to set them on the floor, not sure where she was at the moment, but clearly she wanted to surprise him. He eyed the omelet as his stomach longed for a hearty breakfast.

"If I tell you, will you marry me?" She answered back, though he couldn't tell from which direction.

"Ha. You know, you can only ask me that so many times. Eventually you're gonna have to show up with a—"

Just as he turned to seat himself at the table, he saw that Amy had come around the corner where he had just come in from, somehow coming up behind him as he had originally come into the kitchen, and had been waiting. And in her hands, was a small, palm-sized velvet box.

"...ring." Sonic finished, his shoes falling from his stunned grasp, rather dumbfounded at the moment, and not sure what to make of the situation as he stood awkwardly in his half-sitting position above the kitchen chair. Somehow, he managed to right himself into a standing position as Amy took several steps into the kitchen, never taking her eyes off of him.

"Sonic... You've always been there for me when I've really needed you. You always used to act like you'd never have time for a girl like me, that a relationship would just tie you down... But you've changed. You've grown up a bit. I'm not sure if you've noticed, but I have. These past six months we've been living together... You've shown me how much you can care, that you can settle down every once in awhile. I know that you always love to keep moving; it's a part of who you are and I've learned to love that. Please know that I never want to tie you down or hold you back. I just want you to keep coming back like you always have. I want to be here when you need me just like you've been there when I've needed you."

She took one more step forward, now directly in front of him, got down on one knee, and opened the small box.

"Sonic the Hedgehog... Will you marry me?"

Sonic, the fastest thing alive, couldn't bring himself to move. He looked down at the ring that Amy was holding up to him; it was gold, with three stones; a sapphire and rose quartz, on both sides of a diamond.

She had frequently teased him about it, mentioning it in passing countless times, but... This was real. She was right; the last year had done something to him. He was more comfortable with slowing life down with her. Amy Rose was the one person on Mobius who could do this to him. And in this moment, he absolutely knew why.

Because he loved her. He'd slow down for her... He'd stand still for her.

The pink hedgehog's hand was trembling. She thought for a moment that she'd jump in fright when after what seemed like an eternity, she saw Sonic move. He reached out, took the ring, then took her hand, pulled her up, and brought her in for a kiss. Their lips touched, and it was like electricity coursed through them both. They parted and looked into each others eyes; Sonic's confident, and Amy's brimming with tears of joy.

"S-Say it. Please, I have to hear you say it." Amy stammered, just above a whisper.

Sonic smiled, and with just that right mix of attitude, confidence, and compassion, he said it.

"Yes, Amy Rose. I'll marry you."

Tears flowed down her cheeks as Sonic pulled her in for another kiss, having made her the happiest hedgehog in the world.

* * *

Amy was close to swooning at her dining table, as Sonic was trying to eat and blush at the same time.

"Ah, Sonic, there was a time I thought you'd never get hitched. You've become quite the romantic. 'Oh Amy, of course I'll marry you. Mwah, mwah.'" Tails teased, watching the hedgehog's cheeks become redder and redder, as the fox snickered.

Sonic wasn't about to let that slide.

"Oh yeah, smart guy? Oh man, I can't wait to see your reaction when the marriage officiate says 'And do you, Miles Prower, take Cosmo to be your lawfully wedded wife?'" Sonic mocked with the biggest chili-dog-eating grin he could muster. The fox's white muzzle went red, while Cosmo just became confused.

"I'm sorry, who's Miles Prower?" She asked innocently. This even got Amy laughing, as Tails wished he had a newspaper to hide behind.

"Three months out in the galaxy, and you never told her, huh? That's our buddy's full legal name. We've all just called him Tails for years because he can't stand Miles." Sonic told the girl.

"Alright, alright, you win! Sheesh..." Tails muttered, thoroughly embarrassed, returning to his corn beef hash.

"Miles is a nice name, you should use it more often." Cosmo offered.

"I've never liked it..."

"So proposing is what a couple does when they believe they've been together long enough to last the rest of their lives? I suppose I should ask, what is the age of maturity here?" Cosmo asked.

"I assume that's what the seedrians call it. Here, we call it adulthood, and for most mobians, it's around 9 or 10 years old, and yeah, we've all crossed that line. I'm 17, Amy here is 14, please forgive me for revealing the lady's age," Sonic offered with a mock apologetic bow when she shot him a look. "And Tails over here is 11."

"I suppose I'm the youngest here, then. I spent my whole life in space, but going by your calendar, I believe I'm nearly 11, if you include the year it took me to regenerate. But our age of maturity is almost the same. Most seedrians took care of their own affairs by 8 or 9 years old. As our colony was entirely female, I never witnessed any Joinings, but I was told that it mostly happened between the ages of 10 and 25."

"Tails here has been taking things apart and putting them back together since he was five." Amy told her.

"We're only teasing you, pal." Sonic said, noticing that the fox was still blushing and had gone quiet. "You know you're like family to me and Amy. I've known you for more than half your life."

"Yeah, I know. Thanks, Sonic."

"I haven't seen Knuckles since I've come back. How is he doing?" Cosmo asked as she ate her meal.

"Yeah, and honestly? Unless you go to see him, you probably won't see a whole lot of him. He stays up on Angel Island, the floating island that roams around this area, and guards the Master Emerald at its shrine. He's the last of his clan, so he takes his job fairly seriously." Amy explained, beating Sonic to the punch so he wouldn't be able to misrepresent the echidna's dedication to his charge.

"So what are we going to do today?" Cosmo asked.

"Well, we took the last of the hot dogs to Tails' picnic yesterday, and we're running low on a lot of other stuff, so I should really get over to Topaz Harbor to do some grocery shopping. Cosmo, you're more than welcome to come along if you want."

"Tails, how about you?"

"It's a great way for you to get familiar with the surrounding area. I'd really like to get started on a blueprint for a new living space up at my workshop. Should we all meet back here for lunch?" Tails asked, taking his empty plate to the sink and rinsing it off.

"Sounds like a plan to me. Meet me outside in five, Cosmo?" Amy asked, and the seedrian nodded with a smile. As Cosmo went to go get her shoes from the guest bedroom, Sonic and Tails cleared the table and began filling the sink with soapy water. By the time it was full and all the used dishes were piled on the counter ready for washing, Cosmo was back with her shoes on. She ran up to Tails and hugged him.

"Have a good time! See you two in a few." Tails said, hugging her back. With that, her and Amy headed out the front door while Sonic and Tails started the dishes.

"Not going with? Didn't figure you'd do that." Sonic observed.

"Part of me wanted to, but... Look, I know I'm new to this whole 'releationship' thing, but I do know that you're not really supposed to spend every single moment together. Besides, as soon as we get these dishes done, I'm going out to the X-Tornado to get my blueprint tablet. The fact that I can't provide a suitable roof for her to live under yet... That doesn't sit right with me."

"Well, under the circumstances you shouldn't let that get to you, buddy. She came out of the tree 16 hours ago. How were you supposed to be prepared? I hope you're not looking at the two of you as being a burden on us, because I won't have that. You know you two are welcome here for as long as it takes to get whatever you've got in mind built, you hear me?"

* * *

As Cosmo walked along the footpath to the east with Amy, she kept thinking back to the hedgehog's story of proposing to Sonic, and how it might apply to her and Tails. Adapting to mobian culture was proving daunting so far, especially when she only learned bits and pieces of seedrian culture. She figured her best chance to learn how a mobian relationship worked would be to observe Sonic and Amy. They seemed happy enough.

Another question popped into her mind; how long had Tails and her been "together"? Had it started on the Blue Typhoon? What about in the lake on Marmolim after they had tripped Amy's trap for Sonic? A trap that she obviously had not needed. She just hoped that Tails didn't see them as just starting. From his point of view maybe, but to her, he had spent a year caring for her seed, making sure it got all the nutrients it needed, even when he wasn't positive it would yield the desired result. Or if he had seen it that way, when would he make his own proposal to her?

If she had learned one thing about Tails aboard the Blue Typhoon, it was that while he struggled at times with his self-confidence, he didn't really enjoy being a burden on others, and she sensed that even though he brushed it off at the picnic, not having a fit home for the two of them bothered him.

She'd think on it later. The forest was beautiful as the sun's rays entered from overhead, and she wanted to enjoy the sights.

For now, Tails and her would take it one day at a time.

* * *

A/N:

 **Alright, I hope anyone reading this has been enjoying this story thus far. While I've been writing like mad the last four days, I'd like everyone to know that absolutely nothing pushes me into overdrive like feedback. I wasn't quite sure what to expect because I'm working with source material that is over a decade old by now.**

 **I've been swapping these ideas with two other people who have watched Sonic X, because in the last few days, I decided to attempt to weave a tale that would bring a lasting, definitive end to the Sonic X continuity; something the show itself didn't really do; it left us hanging on a few loose ends, something I'm hoping to rectify with this story.**

 **So if you've been reading and enjoying, please, drop a comment. It helps me more than you know.**

-milesprower06


	5. Groceries, House Guests, and Blueprints

The Fox and the Seedrian, A Taismo Story

Chapter Four: Groceries, House Guests, and Blueprints

Cosmo followed Amy through the supermarket, tossing items into the baskets she and the seedrian were holding, asking her opinion on absolutely everything; and it had driven the trip to a slow grind; she had never heard of half of these food items.

"Amy, I'm sure whatever you want to get will be fine. Actually, because it will probably be a bit before Tails gets new living arrangements made, I was wondering how I could help contribute to your household."

"Don't be silly. You're a guest, Cosmo." Amy replied, putting another item into her hand basket.

Cosmo tried to not feel insulted. New culture and traditions, she had to remind herself.

"Amy, guests don't stay for indefinite periods of time. I know I just got here, but I don't know how to be a guest; I grew up on a colony ship where everyone had to contribute to earn their share, it was essential for survival. We all pitched in on the Blue Typhoon. So if you please, I'd certainly like to do more than sleep in your guest bedroom and eat meals that you cook."

"Of course, you're right. I'm sorry." Amy apologized, "I'm just trying to be a good host, but you're right; if you're staying for however long it takes Tails to build a larger home, then you're entitled to your share of responsibilities. We'll see what we can work out when we get back."

Cosmo smiled, finding that agreeable.

"Thank you, Amy. All I want to do is my part."

As they turned and entered the next aisle, an idea came to the pink hedgehog.

"Hey, would you like to get something for Tails?"

* * *

After finishing the dishes, Sonic left to do a few dozen miles around the coast, leaving Tails to his work in the living area with his tablet and graph paper, and a half dozen measuring tools. When he returned an hour later, he found Tails still there at high noon, but now with considerably more down on the pad.

"Adaptive polarity panels? What does that mean for those of us without engineering experience?" Sonic asked, peering over the fox's shoulder.

"Basically, they can be a solid wall, a clear panel that lets in 100% sunlight, or anything in between, depending on the setting. Meaning we could have walls or windows or skylights anywhere we want, and change the layout on the fly. Cosmo gets some energy from sunlight, so I'd like to let her get it whenever she would like to." Tails informed him.

"You're one thoughtful guy, pal." Sonic said, slugging him playfully on the shoulder.

"Ya look like you have something on your mind, buddy. What's up?"

"You mean other than designing a house?" Tails replied, raising an eyebrow at him.

"Yeah, I mean other than that. You don't usually look so... Sentimental, when you're working on designs or tech."

"I haven't really worked on designs or tech for someone I've truly loved before." The fox replied, smiling up at him.

"Yeah, you got me there."

The front door opened, and Amy and Cosmo walked in with two bags of groceries each.

"We're back!" Amy announced. The two boys immediately went over and relieved their significant other of one of the bags, then together took them to the kitchen.

"Man Ames, if you got anything more, Tails would've had to bring the X-Tornado to pick everything up." Sonic joked.

"Thanks for the suggestion, I'll be sure to inquire about jet parking next time." Amy replied, without missing a beat, putting several cans away in the pantry. "Besides, in case you didn't notice, we're feeding four now." She added.

"Can I help with lunch?" Tails offered, but Amy shook her head.

"Actually, Cosmo and I are taking care of lunch. You two already did the dishes, so you can go back to your designing, Tails."

"If you say so. Have fun!" Tails said, departing back into the living room.

"Alright, Cosmo. If you want to help out more around here, then I'd say another palette can go a long way. What would you like to try?" Amy asked, continuing to unpack their bags.

"You mentioned 'grilled cheese' at the store. How do we make that?"

"Fairly simple and quick meal there. Not to mention it goes fantastic with tomato soup. So, we'll need a loaf of bread, stick of butter, your choice of cheese, and a hot frying pan. I'll get it heated up..."

Amy had to admit, Cosmo was a rather quick study in the kitchen, and her plant-like nature wasn't a barrier to eating or trying any kind of food, to the hedgehog's surprise. After lunch, Tails enthusiastically showed her his in-progress designs for their future home by the workshop, to which she said she couldn't wait to see it in person. Cosmo not only helped with making grilled cheese and tomato soup for lunch, to everyone's delight, but also helped with spaghetti and meatballs for dinner too.

As it went from evening to late night, Tails was in the guest bedroom, sitting on the bed, currently engulfed with the designs on his tablet, and only came out of his little world when he felt Cosmo sit on the bed next to him.

"The food was fantastic today, Cosmo." Tails said, still not able to look at or talk to Cosmo without getting a slight tint in his cheeks.

"Thanks, I'm really enjoying learning about all the types of food you have here, even the particularly messy ones." She said, recalling how she had to slurp her spaghetti at dinner before she was shown how to properly roll it with her fork. Tails let out a chuckle at the recent memory.

"I got you something today." She continued, reaching into one of her skirt's pockets, and handed Tails a neatly wrapped bag of artisan mint candies.

"Amy said they were your favorite."

Tails gave an open-mouth smile, and then had to bite his lip as his shoulders heaved, and he quickly had to start fighting back tears as he sniffled.

"What's wrong? Are they the wrong kind?" Cosmo asked worriedly.

"No... No..." Tails immediately assured her, his voice cracking. "They're my favorite. It's just... Since you've come back, I haven't been able to provide you with anything... Not a place to live, not even a place to sleep... I've let the Typhoon fall into disrepair, because being on board was... I mean, losing you was..." Tails paused to swallow a lump in his throat. "...Was unbearable. And here you are, giving me my favorite candy..." He sniffled, lowering his head and holding the bag thoughtfully in his hands. "I really wish I had more to give you..."

Cosmo scooted closer to him, their sides touching now.

"Tails..." She began, putting a hand to his chin and lifting so his gaze met hers, wiping away a few tears with her thumb.

"I've never told you, but sometimes you don't know what you're capable of... And then there are also times, like right now, where you expect too much of yourself. Before yesterday, neither of us knew when I was coming back. I wish... I could describe what it was like for me... Feeling you tend to my tree every... Single... Day. After all that time, now you're designing a home that can let natural sunlight in anytime just for me. You've given me plenty so far. Being here with you is already enough, I promise."

"I... I'm sorry. I just want to give you the best I can." Tails said, setting the bag of candy to his side, wiping away the rest of his tears.

Cosmo smiled gently at him, and softly placed her hand on the white tuft of fur on his chest where his heart was.

"All you need to give me is the best from in here. Because that's all I want."

Tails nodded with a sniffle, and hugged her, struggling not to break down a second time.

"Thank you, Cosmo."

The seedrian returned the embrace, rubbing his back soothingly.

"Now, we've both had a busy day, so let's get some sleep. Tomorrow is another day." She said, pushing herself up on the bed, and began to get under the covers as Tails put his tablet and his candies on the night stand on his side of the bed. They turned off their respective lamps, kissed each other good night, and snuggled in under the covers.

Cosmo was asleep within minutes. Tails, however, was wired, and stared at the ceiling for ten minutes before quietly slipping out from under the covers, and quickly left the room. He went down the hall and upstairs, where he saw light coming from the bottom of Amy's and Sonic's bedroom door. He knocked softly.

"Yes? Come on in." He heard Amy say. He opened the door and entered, where he saw Amy and Sonic sitting up in bed, each reading their own chosen book.

"Tails? Do you need something?" She asked, setting her book down. Sonic had his eyes on his best friend too. There was that look again, that sentimental look that he'd never seen before today.

"Well, um... Sonic? You were right. I did have something on my mind today. I've been thinking of it all day, and I think I'm gonna need help getting it right, and you two are the only ones with experience."

"What is it, buddy?"

Tails swallowed, took a deep breath, then looked at them both.

"I want to propose to Cosmo."


	6. Similarities

The Fox and the Seedrian, A Taismo Story

Chapter Five: Similarities

As Tails stared thoughtfully into a glass jewelry case of rings at a jeweler in downtown Topaz Harbor, he kept on replaying the conversation he had with Sonic and Amy just last night.

* * *

" _I want to propose to Cosmo." Tails said, looking his two hosts in the eyes._

 _About two seconds of silence followed before Amy leapt out of bed, zipped over to Tails, and nearly tackled him in a hug._

" _Congratulations!" Amy said, squeezing him tightly as Sonic got out of bed to come over to him._

" _So our story really pushed you to this, eh pal?" Sonic said, also coming in for a hug._

" _Yeah. I mean, I was going to wait until I was able to get this home built, until I can provide for her, but she's told me that I've already done so much. From one point of view, yeah, this may be seen as going way too fast, because we've only been together a few weeks and two days with a huge yearlong gap in the middle; but not to her. To her I was there all along as the tree grew. My point is, the last time I hesitated in telling her how I felt, I regretted it. We both know how we feel about the other, so why not now?"_

" _Well, if you feel you're both ready, then I'd say go for it." Amy encouraged._

" _Yep, absolutely. But, you feel pretty confident in this, so, what do you need help with?" Sonic asked._

" _Well... How do I go about it?" Tails asked._

" _Most of the time, getting down on one knee with a ring is required." Sonic quipped, with Amy playfully slugging him on the shoulder for the response._

" _It's each to their own, Tails. Figure out what you want to say, how you want to say it, pick a romantic place, and pop the question." Amy finished._

" _But she's not from Mobius. She comes from an entirely different culture. From how she described 'Joining', it sounded like the whole thing was a package deal. Here, we split it off into two or three events. There's getting engaged, then the wedding, then having a family... Would that even be possible?"_

 _Sonic had to stifle a snicker as Amy put a hand on the fox's shoulder._

" _Honey, that's like, step 26. You are in the planning stages of step 2." She said._

" _She's right. It's better to look at this as one step at a time. It was also an entirely different culture." Sonic offered._

" _I know that, but why should I completely ignore her heritage as a Seedrian?"_

" _Don't think of it as completely ignoring it, but at the same time, she said it herself that she only knows bits and pieces too; she grew up on a colony ship; a remnant of her society before it ultimately collapsed." Amy said._

" _Yeah, and I'm guessing you want this to be somewhat of a surprise. So asking her all these questions of what she does and doesn't know about 'Joining' is liable to make her see exactly what's coming. So trust me; if you want to tell her clearly how you feel; use what traditions you're familiar with, traditions she's learning about right now, here on Mobius." Sonic told him._

 _Tails absorbed this information, then smiled at them._

" _Alright, thanks guys. I won't keep you up any longer. Looks like I know what I'm doing tomorrow."_

* * *

He had returned to bed and, of course, gotten very little sleep. After breakfast, they shared their plans for today, Cosmo wanting to go to Angel Island to talk to Knuckles about something personal, and Tails told her he needed to head into town to look at some things.

Rings. The jewelry kind. Not the kind he shot in Sonic's direction in the heat of battle.

But now that he was here, looking at not one, but two full display cases of all manner of engagement rings, it felt like he was back to square one again. He knew exactly what he wanted to say: 'Cosmo you mean the world to me, I love you, and I want to spend the rest of my life with you.' He was currently struggling with how to translate that from speech into jewelry. All these pieces were undoubtedly beautiful, but they just didn't seem right. He needed the perfect way. He knew that in his heart; any ring, no matter how stunning, wasn't going to cut it.

As he continued his translation attempt at the language of engagement rings, he was beginning to wonder how Cosmo's trip was going.

* * *

Cosmo couldn't imagine the mystical power it would take to keep an entire mountain and its surrounding area afloat in midair for as long as Mobius' citizens could remember.

Tails had dropped her off in the closest clearing to the shrine, which sat atop the north edge of the island. It was about a mile walk up the forest hills, when she came to see the ancient stone structure and steps that led to the top. A familiar looking echidna stood at the top, in front of the magnificent and gargantuan green gem. She certainly hoped he was expecting a visitor; he must have heard the X-Tornado approach 20 minutes ago.

She hadn't touched the first step before he approached the top step to investigate the intruder.

"Who goes there?" He demanded, looking down the steps. His fierce defensive demeanor was quickly replaced by one of surprise as she began to ascend the steps, and he realized who had come to his shrine.

"C... Cosmo?"

"Hello again, Knuckles. I figured I should come up here eventually and let you know I was back. I've been back for two days." Cosmo said, climbing the last steps and giving him a polite bow.

"That's great to hear! Sorry about not being able to come visit, but-"

"Don't worry, Knuckles. It's no trouble. I was told how you're the last of your clan. It's easy to see why you take your guardianship so seriously. Actually, it's what I wanted to come and talk to you about."

"I... I see. What would you like to know?" Knuckles replied, taken back just a bit by Cosmo's immediate understanding; most of his friends gave him a hard time in being so unmoving in his dedication to this shrine.

Cosmo took a few steps closer to the shrine as Knuckles approached the emerald with her. He knew she meant no harm, but it was instinct to not let anyone be closer to the emerald than himself.

"That inscription at the base of the emerald, what does it mean?" Cosmo asked, pointing to the ancient incantation carved into the stone around the massive green gem.

"It's Tikal's Prayer. 'The seven Chaos are the servers. Chaos is power. Power is enriched by the heart. The controller serves to unify the Chaos.' It is used to wield the full potential of the Master Emerald, primarily by temporarily neutralizing the energy within the Chaos Emeralds. Before any of my clan could assume the mantle of guardianship, they must have memorized this chant." The echidna explained.

"'Power is enriched by the heart. The Chaos Emeralds turn our thoughts into power? Into reality?"

Knuckles gave a nod.

"Even though it's collectively referred to as Chaos Energy, it's two distinct energies. Positive and negative, tapped into based upon the strongest feelings in your heart. There was a time when all the negative energy had been harnessed, and Sonic was still able to tap into the positive energy."

"Then that is how Sonic brought me back."

"Yes, I've heard that positive chaos energy can provide miraculous healing powers, although that's the first time I've seen them used. I'd say it was more of a first step, because it was hardly instantaneous. Tails still had to cultivate and watch over your plant as it grew for a year."

"The way you watch over this Emerald." Cosmo compared.

"I can see how you could make that connection, yes."

"You're the last of your clan. What do you suppose is going to happen when you can no longer carry the burden of guardianship?"

"I've thought about that periodically over the last few years. This shrine has been continuously guarded for 4,000 years, because of what happened before it and the surrounding land was ripped from the earth.

"What happened to cause such a calamity?"

"This shrine and the land around it used to be a paradise of peace where the Chao and it's great guardian lived. When Tikal's father plotted to use the Chaos and Master Emeralds for war and conquest, the Chao's guardian killed many of them. Tikal used the prayer to seal herself and the guardian away in the Master Emerald for four millennia. When the Master Emerald was shattered about two years ago, both of them emerged, and when the guardian was pacified again, they vanished to live with the chao in peace. No one knows where they went, and perhaps that is for the best. If this emerald falls into the wrong hands, it could spell disaster for countless lives. If I am unable to find someone to pass the mantle of guardianship onto, perhaps the gods who took this land from the ground will wait for someone to come along, maybe someone who experiences and lives through a time when it does fall into the wrong hands, and realizes the importance of keeping it safe. It may not be up to me what happens when I'm gone; some of my clan believed that the Master Emerald has an... Omniscience, that is impossible to comprehend. I certainly can't understand how it 'held' six years of Chris' life when he passed through to this world."

Cosmo stared at her faceted reflection in the emerald, remembering how the boy had appeared through the emerald, wearing clothes that were entirely too large for him.

"Thank you for sharing that with me. I wouldn't say I was physically here over the past year, but I was conscious to a degree. I watched Tails as he cultivated his garden and cared for my tree. I was the last seedrian before I met all of you, and I never thought about it until just before I emerged from that tree, but now I suppose I am the first, and for now, I am still the last. I... I guess I am wondering if Tails and I could... Propagate, so the seedrian race may survive after myself." Cosmo mused, her cheeks tinting a shade of pink.

"That's... Certainly beyond my expertise. But Tails has a good head on his shoulders. If anyone could figure it out, it'd be him."

"It's certainly not my primary reason for returning; I came to be with him. It's just something that's been on my mind. My species and your clan also share a similar history. The Seedrian race was engulfed in war long before I was born; it's why I was born on a spaceship colony, with half of my species with no home to speak of, being hunted and exterminated by the other half. It... It makes me doubt how much I truly know about the history of my kind, and if it does continue after me, what history and traditions do I pass down to my offspring, especially if we make Mobius our new home?"

"Good things to consider, to be sure. It very well could have been those traditions and customs that made the male half of your species refuse to back away from war. But, I suppose I could offer this..."

Cosmo listened intently.

"In a manner of speaking, the Seedrians _were_ extinct, for a year., depending on the point of view. Through you, they've been born again, maybe for only your lifetime, or maybe as a new beginning. Perhaps it could be time to set aside your old traditions, and you and Tails create new ones to go with that new beginning. Just a thought."

This thought eased Cosmo's mind again. She smiled and gave Knuckles a polite bow.

"That does help. Thank you for the point of view, Knuckles."

"Anytime." The echidna bowed in return. _'And thanks for the company.'_ He thought privately, as Cosmo descended the shrine's steps.


	7. How To Encourage A Fox

The Fox and the Seedrian, A Taismo Story

Chapter Six: How To Encourage A Fox

After looking over each ring individually over the course of two hours, Tails found himself no closer to making a decision. He stepped out to have a chili dog and slice of apple pie at the nearest diner as he mulled it over, and figured his problem solving abilities were at their best when he was tinkering away with tech. Finishing his lunch, he decided to head back to the X-Tornado and head over to the southwest stretch of beach where they had landed the Blue Typhoon, to see how much work would be needed to get it serviceable again, or barring that, what he could salvage, particularly for putting towards what would undoubtedly be his next project; his new home for himself and Cosmo.

* * *

Cosmo had returned to Amy's house on her own after she had finished talking with Knuckles, and her timing couldn't have been better, as lunch was just being prepared. After they had finished eating, Sonic went on a run to 'aid in his digestion', while Cosmo and Amy went to her backyard to work on her garden.

"Amy... I'd like to ask you something, and as odd as it may sound, I'd like it if you didn't tell Tails what I'm about to ask you." Cosmo asked, reservation in her voice.

"My lips are sealed." Amy said, patting dirt down with a shovel as she had finished replanting the herbs that had previously been potted inside.

"H-How... How was he? On the trip home from 0-0-0?" Cosmo asked, her hands shifting uneasily in her lap as she sat next to Amy.

Her question brought pause to Amy's work. She looked at her dirt-covered hands for a moment, then turned to look at Cosmo, with a compassionate, yet serious gaze.

"I'll answer that if you show me the same respect. This doesn't leave this garden. Don't give him any idea I told you." She told Cosmo clearly and firmly. The seedrian girl nodded. Amy cleared her throat and swallowed to compose herself.

"Having to look at the pain in his eyes... Having... Having to _scream_ at him to eat something, _anything,_ to stop worrying everyone else sick..." Amy softly told her, eyes tearing up at the all too unpleasant memories.

"The way Sonic looked when his best friend turned him away... I never want to go through that again. I'm thrilled that you're back. I really am, because regardless of whatever 'destiny' your species gave you to fulfill, he didn't deserve what happened and neither did you. It destroyed him, Cosmo."

Cosmo wasn't sure what kind of answer she was expecting, and part of her now regretted asking in the first place. She knew Tails would hurt after what he had to do, but to know how... Residing in the pot as the sapling on his desk in the opening weeks... Having to hear him cry himself to sleep night after night... Whispering her name to himself...

Tails had told her the absolute truth last night. It had been unbearable.

"Wow... I..." Cosmo struggled to find the words to say after the revelation Amy gave her. "I've never felt this way before. I've never met anyone who's meant so much to me, nor have I thought I'd mean so much to someone else. How do you do it? Being with a fighter like Sonic, with tyrants like Eggman around? How do you get through the days knowing one of you may not come back?"

Amy knew it was a reasonable question, especially in the line of work they had found themselves in.

"By taking it a day at a time. I don't waste too much time looking ahead to the future. I cherish what I have now, because yes, one day it will be over, and I hope that day is a long ways off. I hope one day someone fills Sonic's shoes, or more preferably, that Eggman finally gets his just desserts, so that those shoes don't need filling."

"Tails seemed awfully distracted this morning on the flight over to Angel Island. I have a feeling he's holding something back; he wants to tell me something."

Amy would bet 50 rings on what Tails went to do after dropping her off.

"I had that feeling too. In the time I've known him, he usually doesn't hold something in, and if he does, he just hasn't found the right way to say it. Give him time, that's almost always what he needs, just a little time to figure out the right way to get something across."

Of course, when they had finished their work in the garden, Amy knew Tails didn't have much time if he wanted to keep his proposal a surprise. She knew she had to talk to Sonic; if anyone knew how to hurry things along, it'd be him.

* * *

On his initial approach, Tails saw the Blue Typhoon had sand almost up to the top of it's landing gear, and figured for now, the best way to begin his evaluation would be to just land on the top runway. After a quick routine landing, he opened the canopy and climbed out. Months of wind, rain, and tide had taken it's toll on the paint, as it had begun to chip and wear away in almost every part of the exterior.

Before he could start on anything, he'd need to go to the bridge and run a ship-wide diagnostic, to ultimately determine if repairs were even feasible. He went to one of the X-Tornado's cargo compartments, and pulled out his utility belt and a mobile power supply, knowing he'd most likely need one to power on the console on the bridge. After that, he opened a hatch built into the runway close to where he had landed the X-Tornado, near three large iron panels. He reached in, and came up with a large cable, pulling it from it's spooled storage towards the X-Tornado. Coming up under his jet, he opened another panel on its underside, revealing a port, where he promptly plugged the cable in. After it had sat for this long, the only thing that could give him enough juice to analyze all the systems would be the Chaos Emeralds being harnessed by the X-Tornado. Making sure the connection was solid, he picked the battery back up and got to his feet.

With the battery in hand, he walked down the left side of the ship towards the nearest access hatch, glancing briefly at the area where he stood when Sonic had given him Cosmo's seed. The next thing he knew he had woken up in the medical bay over a day later. He shrugged it off, and kept walking. It wasn't easy being on board again, but the past was in the past. So far, everything had worked out for the best.

He approached the closest access door to the bridge, and it opened with a creaking metallic sound. Stepping inside, he saw that the X-Tornado's power had restored emergency lighting, but nothing more. He walked down the hallway, and went up one flight of stairs to bridge access, where the door hissed open smoothly, the interior of the ship not having been exposed to the elements. Upon stepping onto the bridge, he immediately felt as if he had boarded a ghost ship, with the only light source being the sun shining through the canopy, nearly overhead by now. The waves outside were muffled, and only amplified the eeriness of the empty bridge.

As he approached the captains chair on the center and highest platform, again the memories came flooding back. Sonic's and Shadow's super forms not being enough to penetrate Dark Oak's gravitational field... Cosmo undergoing her final transformation to make him vulnerable... Himself ordering everyone else off the bridge... And finally, as he had gone hysterical with grief, arguing with Eggman, with Cosmo, with himself... Screaming as he forced himself to pull the trigger.

He snapped back to the present, finding himself staring at the right stick of the central console. He shuddered, forcing the memories back, and walked passed his chair, opting instead for the console on the lower right, that had served mostly as Chris' station while he was on the bridge.

He knelt down, opening an auxiliary power port, and hooked in the battery, and the console came to life after a few seconds. He took his seat, and began a ship-wide diagnostic report. After a few moments, data began filling the screen.

BLUE TYPHOON SYSTEMS REPORT

LIFE SUPPORT: 83%

ENGINES: 67%

SHIELD GENERATOR: 45%

AUTOCANNONS: 24%

TORPEDO LAUNCHERS: 37%

WARP FIELD DRIVER: 10%

SONIC DRIVER CANNON: CRITICAL ERROR

EMERGENCY LIGHTING: 61%

PHASE SHIFT DRIVE: 100%

X-TORNADO MAG-LOCKS: 100%

CP-1000 MK 1: N/A

It was a rather succinct report; it merely gave him an indication of how much of the systems were reporting normal operation. He double checked all the numbers, went into more detailed scans of a few systems, and arrived at the educated conclusion that while he would be able to get the Blue Typhoon off the ground with minimal repairs, getting back into space, or even making her combat ready again, would be another matter entirely. When it came to the ultimate decision of repair or salvage, it was a wash so far.

The bottom of the diagnostics report came to his attention, reminding him of the handful of systems that had not seen use during their three months in space. The Phase Shift Drive would allow him to make a very short, very precise jump nearly instantaneously. Against the Metarex, it wouldn't have done a lot of good. It would normally be feasible to temporarily confuse or otherwise disorient a target of similar size and going at a similar or slower speed; the drive would only allow him to instantly teleport the ship maybe 500 meters, if that, and recharging it took several minutes. It was too precise to do alone; it required the help of an artificial intelligence to serve as a co-pilot, the "CP-1000 MK 1" that the diagnostic was referring to. He had only designed CP to operate in atmosphere, so it was one of the things that was left behind in the rush to take off when the Metarex pressed the attack against the Typhoon, Sonic, and Knuckles.

The "mag-locks" were the plates of iron built into the runway out front. They were there so that in an emergency where the bridge had become uninhabitable or inoperable, a small crew of four or less could operate basic ship functions from the X-Tornado, while it would be securely held to the runway, an "emergency bridge" in layman's terms. It also required the use of CP to quickly manage power distribution and commands as they were transferred from the X-Tornado's inputs to the systems of the Typhoon.

Having completed the diagnostics, he shut the console down and disconnected the battery. He carried it back out to the X-Tornado, disconnected the auxiliary power cable, and was on his way within minutes. Flying back towards Amy's house, he realized that he still wasn't any closer to a decision when it came to choosing an engagement ring. He decided to go and take another look before he headed back to Amy's.

* * *

After seeing the X-Tornado fly overhead towards Topaz Harbor three hours ago, Amy finally decided to put Tails' plate of dinner in the oven to keep it warm, and stop making everyone else go hungry.

"I don't ever remember him being this occupied with something." Cosmo stated, lowering her spoon down into her bowl of tomato-soup macaroni and cheese. This had been another simple dish that tasted fantastic. Amy had called it 'comfort food'.

"I'm sure he's fine. Probably engaged in something big." Sonic said, before wincing as he felt Amy's foot jab him in his shin from under the table. Her short glare said it all; 'the worst possible choice of words, doofus.'

They heard the approaching whine of the X-Tornado's twin engines, wind down a few moments later, then fall silent completely. Five minutes later, Tails came through the front door. He came into the kitchen and saw the three of them at the table having dinner, then looked up at the clock on the wall.

"Oh my gosh, I am so sorry..." Tails immediately apologized, not realizing how late he'd been out.

"And just what's had you so busy today?" Amy asked, hoping Tails had an excuse with Cosmo at the table, as she went to the oven to get Tails' bowl of tomato macaroni.

"After I dropped Cosmo off at Angel Island, I went to check to see what needed fixing on the Blue Typhoon, then I went into town to get parts. Didn't realize how much time had passed." Tails answered, sitting down to his bowl of very inviting looking pasta.

"And what's the verdict on our little starship?" Sonic asked.

"Right now, jury's still out. She can take off, and lurch along, but right now, not much else."

Cosmo took her last bite of macaroni and took her bowl to the sink, rinsing it out.

"It was busy in the garden today, Amy. I think I'll have a shower before I get ready for bed." Cosmo said.

"Sure thing, first door on your right across from the stairs." Amy said, pointing to the guest bathroom down the hall. With a smile, Cosmo departed down the hall. Once the door closed and they heard the faucet start, Amy and Sonic leaned forward to Tails.

"Okay, where were you _really_ for ten hours?" Amy said just above a whisper.

"The Blue Typhoon..." Tails repeated, then knew they weren't going to buy that answer, not with what he had told them last night.

"Fine, and the jewelry store... Twice..." He muttered. Being indecisive wasn't something he liked admitting.

"And if you were to divide the time spent at each location...?" Sonic began, urging him to continue.

"Half... Half at the Typhoon, half downtown..." Tails admitted. Sheesh, wasn't that enough?

Sonic and Amy exchanged glances.

"What?" Tails asked.

"Buddy, Amy and I think you may be... Over-thinking this one a bit."

"Why do you say that?"

"Because you took two separate two-and-a-half-hour trips to the jewelry store today, and you still don't have a clue what to get her do you? You're stalling out somewhere." Amy informed him.

"I have to find the perfect way."

"Tails, Cosmo knows something is up. She knows you want to say something big. If you don't figure it out soon, it'll be less of a surprise and more of an expectation. You want to know how long I've thought about marrying Sonic? Four years. Want to know how long it took me to plan my proposal out? Six hours, and that's including the ten minute trip to the jeweler." Amy said.

Although he didn't show it, Tails was absolutely dumbfounded. How in blazes could Amy put together a proposal in _six hours_ , and pick out a ring in ten minutes? How could she find the perfect, not to mention aerodynamic, fits-under-a-glove engagement ring in _ten minutes?_

"I know you think it's a little more complicated because she's from a different culture with different traditions, but it's not." Sonic began. "Compared to the machines you put together with one hand behind your back, this is actually quite simple. As a pilot, you usually wait for that perfect lock before pulling the trigger, but there are some times in life when you just have to take the shot, whether you think you have it or not. I know you love her more than anything, and you want to spend the rest of your life with her. Guess what?" He paused, placing both his hands on the edge of the table to emphasize his next point.

"There's not a whole lot of ways you can say that wrong, and the words matter one hundred times more than the ring. Trust me. Go with your gut."

Tails knew Sonic and Amy were looking out for his best interests. He had to take a good look inside, and figure out how to do this. It wasn't going to be from the heart if it was all extravagant and... Artificial. Of course it wasn't going to be perfect. No plan he concocted or machine he had built ever was; half the fun was finding ways to improve it down the road.

"Okay. You're right. I have to do this. Tomorrow is the day, I swear."


	8. Taking the Shot

The Fox and the Seedrian, A Taismo Story

Chapter Seven: Taking The Shot

 _'Come on, Prower. You've got two minutes.'_

Tails thought silently to himself as he stood in front of the ring display case for the third time. Final time, if he had anything to say about it. He had given himself a time limit of five minutes. He carefully considered each jewel layout, and how it might reflect his relationship with Cosmo. Minutes turned to seconds, and alas... Five, four, three, two, one...

With a sigh, the clerk's attention was gained.

"Have you made a selection, sir?" He asked, about ready to consider Tails a regular at this point.

As Tails eyed a ring with emerald and topaz stones similar to Amy's choice; about to raise his finger to point out his selection, a glimmer caught the corner of his eye, enough to break his focus on his chosen ring. He glanced over at another display case, and saw what had shimmered into his peripheral vision. He walked over to it to get a closer look, and his heart skipped a beat as everything began to click.

Yes. This was it. Who said he had to do it the old-fashioned way? This... This was so much better. Instantly, the frustration of the last 24 hours faded as the pieces began to fall into place in the back of his mind as he raised his finger to point it out.

"Actually, how much is this one?"

* * *

Unlike yesterday, Tails had made it home in time for lunch. Cosmo heard him come in, and came up to him in front of the guest bedroom doorway.

"Tails, I need to say something..." She began, trying to come up with the right way to say what she had been meaning to.

"Tails, whatever you have on your mind, you don't have to worry about saying it the wrong way or offending my customs as a seedrian. I came here to be with you. Please don't change yourself because I'm not used to your customs yet." Cosmo told him.

The fox smiled at her.

"I know, I know. But at the same time, I love you for who you are, and I don't want you to change just because you're living in a new society, either."

Cosmo didn't know quite how to reply to that, because they both had a point. They had both been trying to change in little ways for the other.

"Besides," he continued. "I know exactly what I want to say now, and how I want to say it. Everything will be ready by tonight, I promise."

Cosmo gave him a smile. Now she had something to look forward to.

After lunch, Tails quickly disappeared again, the roar of the X-Tornado fading in the direction of his workshop. That was the last Cosmo saw of him until the sun began to vanish behind the Emerald Hills. She couldn't help but wonder what he had in store; even new recipes to try, compliments of Amy, weren't enough to distract her. When dusk was nearly over, they heard the X-Tornado approach again and land. When he came in the door again, Sonic and Amy were there to meet him. He was freshly showered and groomed, and was still an absolute nervous wreck.

"Everything ready, pal?" Sonic asked.

Tails nodded, his entire body quivering.

"Wow it's really getting to me." He said, shivering. Sonic and Amy put their hands on his shoulders.

"You're gonna do great. I'm sure you've said it over and over again in your head, but don't rehearse it. Take it from the heart." Amy told him, and gave him a hug, followed by Sonic.

"She's waiting in the bedroom. Good luck." Sonic told him, then they both got out of his way as he made his way down the hall. He knocked twice on the guest bedroom door, and opened it, finding Cosmo sitting on the bed, trying very hard to hide her anxiousness. He walked over to the bedside.

"Alright. Everything's ready if you are, Cosmo." He said, offering her his hand. She took it, and he stood her up, they left the room, walked down the hall, and exited the front door, going out into the night hand in hand.

Amy waited approximately ten seconds, then sprinted upstairs, leaving a stunned Sonic on the couch. He heard muffled rummaging upstairs in their bedroom, then the pink hedgehog returned downstairs with a pair of binoculars.

"Well, what are you waiting for?" Amy asked, finding the fact that Sonic was still sitting down as absolutely incredulous.

"No. No. We are not spying on his proposal." Sonic said, as if he was scolding a four-year old.

"I'd like to see you try and stop me. You know I've got to see this!" Amy exclaimed, quietly opening the front door, spotting which way the duo had gone down the road. She waited until they turned off the path into the hills, then followed their footsteps like the bright pink ninja she was.

Sonic rolled his eyes, getting up off the couch, following his fiancee out into the evening. He had to admit, he was half-curious himself.

* * *

Neither Tails or Cosmo said a word as the fox turned right off the dirt path into the hills, that were sparsely populated with trees. They walked for a couple minutes, and cresting the third hill, Cosmo saw a most surprising sight.

"That's... My capsule. From when I landed."

The small pod hadn't been moved since it's arrival, and a year's worth of growth had almost entirely removed all evidence of the crash, as grass and vines had grown around and over it.

"First off, I want to say I'm sorry that this took so long. I was so determined to do it one way that I was ignoring all the other ways I could go about this." Tails said, pointing up to the next hill, where a telescope had been set up. They walked passed shrubs, bushes, trees, all with chirping crickets. They crested the hill, and stood by the telescope, when Tails finally let go of her hand.

"This was where I was when you first came into my life. Amy, Cream, Cheese, and I were watching a meteor shower when your capsule came crashing down."

Tails peered into the telescope and made a final adjustment to the focus before stepping back and invited Cosmo to lean in and look into the eye piece. At the center of the scope was a brilliant, bright star.

"That's one of the brightest stars I've ever seen from a planet's surface." Cosmo commented, leaning back up to look at Tails.

"It's Polaris; the North Star. It's the only star in Mobius' northern sky that doesn't move. From down here, everything else in the night sky rotates around it. When Mobius was first being mapped, navigators and travelers used it to avoid getting lost. It was the one constant thing to guide them in the night. And it was at the center of the meteor shower we were watching."

He reached carefully into one of the tufts of fur that made up his left tail, and came out with a four-inch, velvet covered jewelry box. He stared thoughtfully at it before bringing his gaze back up to meet Cosmo's.

"Cosmo, these past three days have been the best I've had in a long time. My highest hope for the past year was that taking care of your seed would bring you back. Sometimes, your tree was the one and only thing I had at night when memories of that fateful day would come flooding back. Now that you're here, I wanted to figure out the perfect way of showing how much I care... How grateful I am that you came back... And how much I love you. Sonic told me that I'd have better luck saying what I wanted to say if I stuck to the traditions and customs that I'm familiar with here on Mobius, but at the same time, I didn't want to set aside your traditions and heritage as a Seedrian, that I've just now started learning about. Now I realize that I've probably been thinking about this too hard and for too long. Then today, I was in the jewelry shop for the third time and it suddenly came to me. I knew it was the perfect thing to get as soon as I laid eyes on it."

Tails opened the small case, and took out a sterling silver chain, with a double-sided, eight-pointed white gold pendant hanging at the bottom. In the center of the pendant, was a small diamond stone, slightly protruding from both sides, giving the center of the pendant a glimmer. He let the pendant hang from his thumb and forefinger, while letting the chain drape down the inside of his closed palm. Taking a deep breath, he slowly got down on one knee and looked up into Cosmo's sapphire eyes, as the tears that had been pricking the sides of his eyes finally went over and down his face.

"You came into my life unexpected, and through matters of life and death, I saw the untold beauty of the galaxy with you. You are the brightest star in my sky, and getting to know you has been the most worthwhile journey I have ever taken. Without you, I am lost. Cosmo... Will you Join with me, and continue to be my constant, unwavering guide? Will you marry me?"

Cosmo suddenly had trouble keeping back her tears as her smile grew even wider. Tails had tried so hard over the past day to come up with the absolute perfect way of saying what he wanted to say, and Amy had been absolutely right; all he needed was a bit of time. His choice of engagement gift was perfect. As tears began to spill over and roll down her cheeks, she finally understood why some Mobians put so much time and effort into this. With a tearful and almost immediate nod, she gave her answer.

"I will."

Tails sniffled and bit his lip to avoid bursting into a joyful sob, as he got to his feet. Barely able to keep his hands from shaking, he unfastened the silver necklace chain, and took a couple steps closer. He blinked so his tear-filled eyes would let him see what he was doing. Taking one end in each hand, he reached around, and fastened the necklace around Cosmo's neck, and the Polaris pendant came to rest where her red amulet used to be on her chest. Taking a step back, he took in how radiant his love... His _fiancee_ looked in the moonlight.

"It's absolutely beautiful. Thank you so much, Tails."

She took his hands in her own, and interlocked their fingers.

"We are Joined. We are one."

Tails stood silently, smiling at the girl, who suddenly looked uncertain.

"At least I think that's what I'm supposed to say. What do we do now?"

Tails half-cried with joy, half-laughed in feeling absolutely silly.

"I don't think there's much of an instruction manual. But I'm pretty sure we celebrate..." Tails began, leaning forward and kissing her.

"We simply be together." He continued, his forehead pressing against hers. Another kiss.

"I love you. I love you more than anything, Cosmo. You've made me happier than you can possibly imagine."

Their eyes finally drying up, they released the others fingers, came in close again and embraced.

Then, the thought that had been lingering in the back of Cosmo's mind started to creep up to the front.

"A-Actually... I think I have an idea of something we can do, i-if we're both ready that is. I think we're both ready. Do you?" She said, her cheeks flushing crimson.

"What did you have in mind, Cosmo?" Tails asked innocently, then saw how fiercely she was blushing as her gaze fell to the ground.

Oh.

Ohhh.

Needless to say, Tails' cheeks joined in on the red alert.

* * *

Five hundred feet away, in the most inconspicuous location she could find, Amy Rose crouched in a bush with her binoculars pressed to her face. She had the most cheesy looking grin, then lost her balance and fell into the twigs and leaves of the shrub, giggling herself silly, muffling herself with her gloves.

Sonic, fully behind the bush, just stared down at her.

"You know, if this was a cartoon, I'm pretty sure there'd be hearts floating out of there right now..."

* * *

 **A/N:**

 **Alright, well, where to begin this little note. First off, I'm sure most of you can see the writing on the wall. The next chapter will release in two versions: a T-rated version, and an MA-rated version. For you readers on FFnet, that means the MA-rated chapter will be released as its own standalone story, and the T-rated version will be joining the rest of the chapters here. For you DA readers, two different versions will be posted at the same time.**

 **Also, this was the original point where I was going to conclude this story. Since the planning stages for this portion of the story finished, a couple friends and I got it in our heads to turn this tale into our own definitive finale for the Sonic X continuity. So things are going to start taking drastic turns here, and content delivery will probably slow down as well. We want to leave far less loose ends than the show itself left us with.**

 **Thanks for reading so far, and we hope you enjoy what we have in store.**


	9. Trust Underneath A Tree (T Rated Ver)

The Fox and the Seedrian, A Taismo Story

Chapter Eight: Trust Underneath A Tree

 **A/N: As this entire story is rated Teen, a great deal of the content has been cut from this chapter. To read it in its entirety, please consult my stories and find the M-rated "The Fox and the Seedrian: Trust Underneath A Tree".**

The X-Tornado flew at half-propulsion through the black of night over the Emerald Hills. Tails was taking the deepest, quietest breaths he could, trying to concentrate on stopping his hands from shaking as they gripped the flight sticks of his price jet. Especially since his fiancee sitting behind him was prone to flight sickness.

And here he thought his nerves would start to calm after he got that necklace around Cosmo's neck.

Of course he knew that eventually they would get that close to each other. It was actually a common practice for Mobian couples who got engaged; others waited until the honeymoon after they make the marriage official, and still others went at it well before the proposal too. He supposed it just surprised him when Cosmo made such a suggestion because he had never lusted after her body like that. He loved her for, well, her. Being around her and making her happy was quite enough.

He had to remind himself that it went both ways. Cosmo had been conscious, in one way or another, in his backyard for a year as she came closer and closer to reincarnation. From her point of view, she had received so much from him, and now wanted to give something back.

"Tails? Are you alright?" He heard Cosmo ask him from the co-pilot's seat behind him.

"Yeah... Yeah, why?" He answered, snapping out of his thoughts.

"Because you just overshot the runway."

Tails did a double take and realize that he had indeed just performed a flyby of the workshop. Internally slapping his hand against his face, he slowly began to turn around to re-approach.

"Whoops." He offered. Within the next two minutes, the X-Tornado had been swung around, and successfully landed on the runway outside the hangar. Tails opened the canopy, and looked up at the clear night sky, alive with countless stars.

"Tails... If you're not ready... I can wait. You don't have to worry." Cosmo reassured him, as he began to climb out.

"No, no... It's not that. It's just nerves, I promise." Tails replied, offering his hand and helping her out of the plane. Just by taking his hand in hers, Cosmo could tell how he was nearly shivering.

As they set foot on the runway and Tails began to lead her to the front door of his living quarters, Cosmo had a better idea, took his hand, and led him around the shack to his backyard. They hopped along the stepping stones to her tree in the middle.

"Out here? Isn't this a bit... Exposed?" Tails asked, who had gone back to quivering.

Cosmo merely kissed him briefly without a word, then put her hands on the tree. Tails looked up when he heard rustling up in the branches. Flowering vines began to rapidly grow and snake across the branches to the outer edge of the tree, where they then started to droop and hang. When they got halfway down, Tails realized what she was doing; creating a live curtain of vines and pink and purple flowers. After twenty more seconds, they had reached the ground. The area under the tree had dimmed just slightly as the duo now found themselves effectively isolated from the outside.

Cosmo turned to Tails, and now was starting to show how many butterflies she had in her stomach, as she knelt down and began removing her shoes, her hands shaking as she did so. The left, then the right. Tails fought through his own nerves and likewise removed his shoes and socks, placing them at the trunk. After that, they stood there barefoot, the roots of the tree making the grass as warm as it would if a high noon sun had been beating down on it for hours.

Finally, after several seconds, Cosmo took a step toward him.

"I... I can only assume our nervousness is from complete inexperience and uncertainty. At first I thought it was a matter of trust, but that's not it. You took me from my capsule, gave me shelter, then followed me out to the stars to save us all. Then you brought my seed back to your soil and watched over my regeneration. You have given me so much of yourself. Now I want to give myself to you. I trust you, Tails, and I know you trust me, but there's one last part; trusting yourself. Do you... Trust yourself with me?"

Tails was finding his breaths harder to come by. He took enough of a deep breath to keep himself barely composed, and nodded.

"Yes. I-If you're ready, yes. I want you, Cosmo."

Smiling and saying nothing, Cosmo reached behind her, and began to unfasten her dress. After a little fidgeting, she got it undone, and let it slowly slide from her shoulders, down her body to the ground, letting her fiance see her in her entirety for the first time.

Cosmo stood before him, thoughts and questions colliding in her head, one being the most important one of all... Did Tails... _Like_ what he was seeing?

She noticeably glanced down between his legs, and Tails blushed and looked away.

"What's wrong?" She asked.

"N-Nothing... I just... I wish I had... You know, m-more for you to look at..." Tails said, rubbing the back of his head, looking at her shyly.

Cosmo smiled, and closed the gap between them with a couple more steps, putting her hands on his chest.

"Tails, you give me more than enough to look at. You do." She told him, bringing one hand up to his face, caressing his right cheek. He smiled back, his confidence boosted a bit. She closed the last two inches, her flesh pressing against his fur, feeling his heart thunder against his chest, as she pressed her lips to his, keeping them locked as she moved her hands down his arms, to his wrists, where she unfastened the straps to his gloves, then tugged them off, dropping them on the grass as she broke the kiss.

Tails took a quiet gasp, and swallowed again. The kiss was sloppy. It was messy. But it was her, and they were new at this.

"Wow..." He said, catching his breath, looking into her eyes.

"Now... Go at whatever pace you want. Don't rush yourself because of me." Cosmo said, wanting him to make a move now.

Tails came in for another kiss, bringing his now bare hands to her sides. He brought his left hand around to her back, and bent down and put his right behind her knees, and swiftly picked her up. Having her secure in his arms, he knelt down, and laid her on the warm, lush grass.

"You're so beautiful..." He whispered, leaning over the girl as she quivered in anticipation, smiling up at him.

* * *

Neither of them were sure how long it lasted, but when the wave of pleasure they were riding began to subside, they opened their eyes, and looked at each other, both short of breath.

"That was... Was... Tails, I don't know if there are even words for that..." Cosmo told him with a smile.

Tails had nearly collapsed on top of her. He kissed her, and rolled off to the side, snuggling up beside her on the lukewarm lawn,

They laid together in the grass underneath the tree, the occasional star shining through the branches and flowers that hung over them, as the afterglow began to fade.

"I've heard that the first time isn't supposed to be that great, but that was just... Wow, Cosmo. And it's supposed to get better as we improve."

Cosmo looked over at him, and chuckled.

"Well, let's cross that bridge when we come to it. Because right now, I find the possibility that it can get any better than that, a bit concerning."


	10. Wounded

The Fox and the Seedrian, A Taismo Story

Chapter Nine: Wounded

Tails and Cosmo had fallen asleep on the lawn last night, the seedrian at least having the foresight to put her clothes back on before falling asleep. Together in his living quarters, they cooked a breakfast that was frankly impressive for a kitchenette that size. Afterward, they worked in his garden for a couple hours, which hadn't seen attention since she returned three days ago.

After a quick lunch, Cosmo asked him where the best flowers grew in this area; she wanted to get him something to thank him for last night.

"You don't have to get me anything, Cosmo. We both enjoyed last night."

"I know, but I was the one who brought it up, and you fought through a lot more nervousness than I did."

"Well, if you want to, the best variety of wildflowers are in a clearing about three miles north through the Green Forest. Do you want me to drop you off?" Tails asked.

"No, I want to see some more of this area on foot. Do you have anything to keep yourself busy?"

"There's never a shortage of things for me to do around here, trust me."

With a hug and a kiss, they set off on their separate tasks; Cosmo over the hills towards Green Forest, and Tails into the hangar for some routine maintenance on the X-Tornado.

* * *

As Tails' mind inevitably began to wander during his countless hours of work, both on his yard and maintaining the X-Tornado, his thoughts would occasionally dwell on Chris. The fox felt he had grown closer to the boy because of his new passion for mechanics. He had been an invaluable part of the team during the fight with the Metarex. What worried him was that although he believed Eggman when he claimed there was a very small window of opportunity for him to return home, even he couldn't guarantee if he would make it there, and at what age. And then there was the time dilation between there worlds as well, which according to what Chris told them, had a factor of 12. For every month that passed here, a year passed for Chris' world. If he reverted back to his original age upon returning home, that would make him 30.

Tails had to remind himself that perspective was a very important part of any time paradox. Chris wasn't living any faster, it just appeared faster from their side. If he could somehow manage to return over here, something Eggman invited him to do if he so wished, he'd be a fresh-faced teenager. He hoped he had made it home okay. But still, not knowing for sure proved worrisome from time to time.

As the sun began the final descent towards the horizon, Tails began to wonder what was keeping Cosmo; she had left six hours ago, and even Cream didn't take that long to pick flowers.

Suddenly, he heard a high-pitched beeping, coming from both the east wall of the hangar, as well as up in the cockpit of the X-Tornado. A call on all available frequencies meant only one thing; an emergency hail from Sonic. No doubt Eggman was up to his schemes again, for the first time in a month. He wasn't too enthused about leaving here without telling Cosmo where he was headed, but what choice did he have if it was serious?

He slid out from the underside of the X-Tornado, stood up, then jumped up and climbed into the cockpit, where he answered the hail.

"-ick up pick up pick— Tails! Tails you need to get down here right now. Topaz Harbor Hospital!" Sonic's panicked voice came over the small five-inch screen on his array of controls.

"What is it?"

"Cosmo's been hurt, bad."

Tails' stomach dropped in an instant.

"What? What happened? Sonic what happened?" He asked frantically.

"I'm not sure, she's in surgery now. Get down here as quick as-"

That's all Tails heard as he cut the feed and dread overcame him. He began the quick start procedures for the X-Tornado's systems, ignited the engines, and barely cleared the doors as he triggered the afterburners and rocketed off the runway into the dusk sky towards the coast.

For the first time in what seemed like forever, Tails felt claustrophobic in the X-Tornado's cockpit. Part of him wanted to push the throttle even higher, but the rational part of his mind told him if he fed any more residual chaos energy into the throttle, he'd overload the main fuel feed and stall out; then it'd be two or more hours before he arrived at Topaz Harbor.

Using every ounce of willpower to fight back the panic, he saw the Topaz Harbor skyline appear on the horizon twenty minutes later as the sun disappeared behind the Emerald Hills. He immediately backed off the throttle and turned towards the hospital, which was in the center of town. There wasn't any place to touch down safely and quickly, so as he approached the large parking lot outside the ER ward, he transformed the jet into it's Cyclone walker mode, setting it down as close to the doors as he could without it being too much of a hindrance to anyone else coming or going.

He used his twin tails to glide down to the sidewalk after leaping out of the cockpit. He landed in front of the doors to the ER and they slid open as he sprinted in, his expression full of worry, looking for any sign of Sonic.

"Sonic? Sonic? Cosmo?" He called, running past orderlies and doctors, looking left and right, heading for the central reception area.

"Miles Tails Prower?" A voice behind him asked. Tails whipped around, and saw a gray wolf in a surgeon's outfit.

"Yes? Yes, have you seen Sonic or Cosmo? She's my height, green—"

"I was the on-call surgeon when she was brought in ninety minutes ago. She's stable for now, so she's been moved to Observation." The surgeon said, beginning to lead him to the Observation Unit.

"What happened to her?" Tails asked, his voice shaking as he kept pace beside the wolf as they weaved between the hallway's other occupants as they went to their destinations.

"Her wounds seem to suggest it was gunfire. She was hit in the side of the head and in the right leg. Sonic said he found her unconscious near large tread tracks near the Mystic Ruins. The leg wound was a through-and-through. We don't believe it hit any major arteries, Sonic said there wasn't a lot of blood where she was found, but it completely fractured the tibia bone. The head wound could have been much worse, only a minor laceration, didn't even penetrate the skull. It's probably what knocked her unconscious. She's extremely lucky."

"Is she gonna be okay?" Tails asked as they rounded the corner, the sign above the hallway reading 'OBSERVATION'.

"I really wish I could say. We inserted steel pins to align the two halves of her right tibia, and we have her on minimal amounts of morphine, but I can't estimate recovery time. We know nothing of her species' physiology."

They turned another corner, and there sitting in chairs against the wall were Sonic and Amy. They got up, but didn't immediately come up to him as they noticed he was already with a doctor.

"She's in here." The wolf said, opening the door and passing through just after the fox.

Tails walked through the door and immediately got a lump in his throat. Cosmo was laying in the bed, wearing a patient's gown, oxygen mask strapped over her face. She was wired to a heart monitor, steadily beeping, and her right lower leg was in a molded cast and elevated in a sling by a pulley. He saw that a section of her leaf-like hair had been shorn off on the right side where she had been struck on the head, and the wound had been wrapped in gauze. Lastly, his eyes glanced over to the side table, where her Polaris pendant rested.

The wolf noticed Tails bite his lip as he began silently crying.

"I have to report back to the surgery unit. You can wait outside with Sonic and Amy when you're done." He told the fox sympathetically.

"Thank you..." Tails replied, his voice cracking.

After the surgeon turned to leave, Tails slowly approached the bed, nearly to the rhythm of her beeping heart monitor. He came up to her side, and softly grasped her right hand. This caused her to stir and waken, as her eyes slowly opened and fell on him.

"Tails...?" Cosmo asked softly, her voice slightly muffled by the oxygen mask.

"Cosmo..." He replied, softly squeezing her hand, tears streaming down his face.

"I'm sorry... I... The trees... I could feel their pain... I had to try and stop it..." She said.

"Stop what, Cosmo?" He asked, sniffling.

"The machine... It was plowing down everything in its path. I tried to help the plants' growth overtake it, but a turret on top fired at me. That's the last thing I remember."

Tails swallowed the lump in his throat, and squeezed her hand again.

"You get some rest, okay? These people are going to take very good care of you, alright?" Tails shakily told her. She nodded.

"I love you, Tails." She said.

Tails leaned over and kissed the part of her forehead that wasn't covered in gauze.

"I love you too. More than anything."

With that, Cosmo closed her eyes, and fell back asleep rather quickly. Tails slowly released her hand, and turned to exit the room.

Voices of the past filled his ears as he walked towards the door.

 _'You promised you'd come live with us when this was all over!'_

 _'She was here! I heard her! You were supposed to save her Sonic! I trusted you! I believed in you!'_

 _'How do you think this would make Cosmo feel? She would never want you to do this to yourself!'_

For the last hour and a half it had been shock and dread. Then when the surgeon explained things and he saw her, it started to give way to relief. Now...

Now a seething rage was slowly building inside him. He knew who had done this... Who had _always_ done this... And had been allowed to get away time and time and time again.

He exited the room back out into the hallway, and Sonic and Amy were immediately on their feet.

"Thanks for getting her here." Tails said, trying to contain his anger. "Where did you find her? Where were these tread tracks?" He asked Sonic.

"I saw a line of smoke headed towards the Mystic Ruins, and found the treads heading in the same direction, away from Eggman's tower. I didn't see what made them, but the clearing it made had to be at least 20 feet across... One of his heavy haulers, knocking down everything in it's path. I was following the trail when I found Cosmo off to the right side. About two miles away from the ravines."

"Two miles from the ravines... Close to where I told her she'd find the flower patches..."

"We're gonna get him back for this, Tails. Don't worry." Sonic told him.

Tails took a deep breath as he clenched his fists.

"I'm gonna deal with this." Tails said, beginning to walk towards the main doors.

"Wait what? By yourself?" Amy asked, bewildered.

"Knowing Sonic, he'll let Eggman limp back to lick his wounds and try again." Tails said in an accusing tone, not looking back or stopping his pace towards the exit.

Sonic jogged up to his livid friend.

"Tails, chill. Now's not the time for any rash decisions." Sonic began, putting a hand on Tails' shoulder and stopping him in his tracks. "We're gonna do this together and teach him a lesson, alri-"

With Sonic mid-sentence, Tails whipped around, right arm drawn back, and delivered a right hook to Sonic's jaw, sending him reeling back and falling to a knee, almost knocking the hedgehog into an empty gurney against the wall.

"How many more times, Sonic?! How many more times are we going to teach him a lesson, huh?" Tails yelled in a rage.

Amy came up between the duo, but Tails shoved her over into a chair against the wall. She immediately jumped back up and held the enraged fox back.

"When is enough going to be enough?! When are we going to remove the threat he poses for good?! How many years has it been?" Tails screamed passed Amy as she stopped him from coming any closer to her fiance.

Sonic had been dazed, that much was clear, but still, Tails didn't relent. Amy tried to calm him down, but he wasn't having it.

"Let me go, let me go!" He yelled, batting her away, before returning his furious, tear-filled gaze to the hedgehog kneeling on the floor, as stunned onlookers watched the spectacle.

"Why do you let him get away every time he is beaten and retreats? Is it because you need the excitement in your life? The excitement of having innocent people... People you love being put at risk when he inevitably comes back to try again?"

Still, Sonic said nothing, the side of his lip bleeding.

"Since I've known you, you've believed that there's good inside everyone. What value is that if they refuse to see it? Why should the rest of us wait around to see if and when they come around?"

Sonic finally looked up at Tails, and before he could get to his feet, the fox stood over him, locked eyes, and pointed at Amy.

"I want you to look at me. Look me in the eyes, and tell me that if it was her in that room right now, that you'd still believe there is good in that man."

Several moments passed without a word from the hedgehog.

"That's what I thought." Tails whispered, fresh tears falling from his eyes, and with that, he turned and ran.

"Tails, wait!" Sonic called.

He didn't wait. He didn't stop. He didn't even look back.


	11. A Fox's Fury

The Fox and the Seedrian, A Taismo Story

Chapter Ten: A Fox's Fury

"We have to go after him." Sonic said, as Amy came back with a damp cloth for his bleeding lip.

"Sonic, a cut lip is one thing. You're not going to look as dashing if you're missing some teeth." Amy retorted, sitting him down in the closest chair across from Cosmo's room.

"I can't believe you think now is a time to make jokes."

"This coming from the one who makes the most wisecracks in the heat of battle." Amy shot back.

"The heat of battle is exactly what I'm concerned about right now. He's either going to get himself killed, or he's going to have blood on his hands for the rest of his life. I won't let that happen." Sonic claimed, starting to get up, only to be held down by Amy's hand on his shoulder.

"What in the name of chaos makes you think it's your choice this time? He's right you know. This has gone on for far too long. What about the next time? What if you have to call him again for something like this, and it's worse? Do you really want to see what happens to him if, gods forbid, he loses her again?" Amy said, looking him in the eyes. Sonic returned the locked gaze.

"Let me be equally frank; do you want to have to walk into that room and tell her that something happened to him because he went off seeking vengeance?" Sonic asked her.

"Blood on his hands, hm? And how much blood does Eggman have on his, Sonic?"

Sonic didn't reply to that.

"He's right about that too, isn't he? Eggman is a source of unpredictability and excitement that you just can't let go of. You do what you have to when people get hurt, but you always let him get away. Tails is not willing to take that risk anymore, and you know what? I can hardly blame him."

Amy released her hold on his shoulder.

"So if you want to go help him, then go. But don't you dare stop him when he decides Eggman's fate."

* * *

Hauler-01 came to a halt underneath the crane assembly, and the arm immediately began unloading the device that had been transported through the forest, onto the massive cruiser that was undergoing final launch preparations.

Decoe and Bocoe exited the cockpit and went into the nearest access point to the inside of the ship.

"Doctor!" The duo screamed running onto the bridge.

"About time you lug nuts got here. You're behind schedule." Eggman replied, from the captain's chair.

"Yes, we have a problem, sir." Bocoe replied.

"Is the shield generator intact?" Eggman asked.

"Yes, but we ran into some... Resistance along the way."

"That's what the autocannon on top is for."

"Yes, that's the problem." Decoe said, handing Eggman a data pad, containing the cannon's targeting data, including an image of the single target the cannon had shot at. He stared at it for a moment, then looked back at Decoe.

"That's impossible."

"Tell that to the targeting data. It fired a single burst of three rounds, and she fell." Decoe told him.

"She's here?!" Eggman exclaimed, tossing the data pad onto the console in front of him, stroking his mustache a few times in thought.

"Get that shield generator installed now." Eggman commanded his two henchbots.

"Is staying on this ship really the best decision, Doctor? They have the chaos emeralds, and they'll come when they realize what's happened." Bocoe warned.

"I'm aware of that. So we're going to need the one thing that can nullify them. The moment that it's installed, prepare for immediate takeoff and set course for Angel Island."

* * *

Tails carefully lined up the X-Tornado's landing gear with the deactivated maglocks of the Blue Typhoon. When he touched down, he cut the engines and immediately opened the canopy, hopping out onto the deck with a cloth sack over his shoulder.

The sun had disappeared behind the hills an hour ago, and now the only light source was the moonlight on this clear night, reflecting off of both the metallic surfaces of the Blue Typhoon, as well as the waters of the Sapphire Sea. He went to the rear underside of the plane, and turned on the jet's exterior navigation lights, giving him adequate lighting to work in. He repeated the task he had done before; opening the hatch built into the runway, and pulled out the auxiliary power cable, and pulled it towards the X-Tornado, opened the panel on the rear underside, and plugged it into the port, providing a link for the residual chaos energy to pass into the Blue Typhoon's systems.

Next, he went one panel further back on the underside, and opened it. This was the plane's countermeasure compartment. Inside, were a dozen identical metal-and-glass chaff vials, each eight inches in length. Carefully, he disengaged and removed each of them, setting them on the deck in two rows of six. Then, he removed the top seal from each of them, setting them to the immediate side of each chaff. Inside each were tiny steel ball bearings and aluminum shavings.

With each chaff open, he then reached into the cloth sack, and retrieved the first item he needed; a small flask of water. He poured a small amount of water into each chaff, then put the flask to the side. The second item he grabbed was a precision knife. Removing his left glove, he extended his middle finger, gritted his teeth, and made an incision on the tip. It began bleeding immediately, and he held it over each open chaff, depositing several drops per container, and staining the water, and the metallic contents, red.

Once each vial had been filled, he gathered bandages from the bag and immediately sealed the self-inflicted cut, then put his glove back on. Then he carefully re-inserted each chaff into it's launcher, and closed the compartment. Putting everything else back in the bag, he returned to the cockpit, and closed the canopy. He pulled a final item from the sack; a silver and blue data disc, six inches in diameter. He inserted it into a small console to the side of the seat, and waited for the device to boot. The console lit up, and a robotic voice came from the cockpit's speakers.

"Co-pilot Program 'CP-1000' online. Authorization code." It stated, emotionless.

"Prower, one-nine-nine-two." Tails replied, almost as emotionless.

"Voiceprint and authorization accepted. CP online and awaiting instructions." It responded.

"Activate capacitors three through seven, and transfer the power into the Blue Typhoon through the auxiliary system." Tails commanded.

"Capacitors activated; power level at 700%, transferring... Energy link complete. Capacitor is holding stable." The AI informed him.

"Activate the Maglock System." The fox instructed.

The ship beneath him came to life, and there was a momentary vibrant hum from below the jet as it was locked into place.

"Maglocks activated, seals stable."

"Override X-Tornado inputs with the Blue Typhoon's. Charge the Phase Shift Drive. Full power to engines and shields."

* * *

Sonic raced through the starry Emerald Hills towards Tails' workshop. When he got there, he screeched to a halt on the runway, and found both the living quarters and hangar empty, with the X-Tornado nowhere to be seen. He put a finger to his chin and impatiently tapped his foot, trying to wonder where else the fox would go. It only took a few moments, and with a snap of his fingers, he turned towards the direction of the southeast beachfront, when he heard the distant roar of a jet engine, and it was getting louder.

It was another five seconds before he saw it against the starry night sky, and by then the ground beneath his feet was vibrating from the proximity.

"Tails!" The hedgehog yelled, but there was no way the fox could have heard him as the Blue Typhoon rocketed overhead, towards the Mystic Ruins. Sonic gave chase, and managed to keep pace with the large vessel, though there was no way he would be able to reach it without the needed power boost of a ring. As he raced to keep up, Sonic remembered that Tails had managed to keep his head through so many crises, and hoped that he'd be able to do so this time.

Two minutes later, he had reached the large clearing in the Green Forest where Eggman's Heavy Hauler had plowed through, and it was here where the Blue Typhoon changed it's heading to follow the path towards the Mystic Ruins.

* * *

For Knuckles, it had been a peaceful night so far at the shrine. During the warmer months, he preferred to keep watch at night; ne'er do wells weren't as likely to try something during the daylight. This was also the time of year where Angel Island would pass closest to it's point of origin as it spent the last several days slowly moving down the southern coastline. Due to the proximity to land, any potential thieves might use that as an opportunity to board the island if they couldn't access it by air over the ocean, where the island spent most of it's time.

Knuckles' peaceful watch was interrupted when his ears picked up the whirring of approaching engines. He was instantly on his feet, and turned towards the shrine's cliff side, which was currently facing the swamps of the Mystic Ruins below. He looked up to see a large red, silver, and black cruiser, spotted only with the help of the moonlight above. Suddenly, spotlights came on from the ship's lower hull, coating the shrine in light, and briefly blinding the echidna.

"I'm only going to say this once, Knuckles. Out of the way, or I level your precious shrine!" Came Eggman's voice over the external loudspeaker.

A third Egg Carrier.

Undaunted, Knuckles placed himself between the approaching vessel and the Master Emerald. Eggman wouldn't dare fire; the emerald was useless in pieces.

Suddenly, his eyes noticed something off to the right, and saw three plumes of fire rocket towards Eggman's ship. The torpedoes impacted, and the shimmering silvery surface briefly shown during the resulting explosions revealed the craft's energy shields. Knuckles turned to look at the source, and found the similarly-sized Blue Typhoon, coming down from the top of the ravine high above the swamp, barreling down on the Egg Carrier at what must have been full speed, with the front autocannons spinning up and firing.

* * *

"Three direct missile impacts! Shields at 87%, incoming autocannon fire. Shields at 85%... 82%." Decoe reported from his station.

"The Blue Typhoon is closing. Twelve hundred and fifty meters." Bocoe also offered.

"Are we close enough to siphon?" Eggman demanded.

"Yes. Chaos Siphon is deployed and ready, Doctor." Bocoe answered.

"Do it, and turn us towards him. Use the siphon to charge the energy lance."

* * *

Knuckles wasn't sure of what to do from down here, and right now was content to continue guarding the Master Emerald. He felt a brief pang of relief when the Egg Carrier began to turn towards the Typhoon, but immediately became alarmed again when he noticed the Master Emerald's glow intensify, as it gave off motes of green light, which were being drawn towards a glowing white rod on the bottom of Eggman's ship. As it did, a glowing ball of energy began glowing brighter and brighter at the nose of the ship. The moment the Egg Carrier had aligned with the quickly-approaching Blue Typhoon, the white-hot ball of energy was launched at it, and it was moving much too quickly for a ship of its size to react or otherwise avoid.

A half-second before impact, however, there was a crackling sound, and the Blue Typhoon vanished into thin air, and the ball of energy was hurled harmlessly into the night sky.

"What the..." Knuckles said, perplexed.

Barely three seconds later, he felt an intense heat, and there was a deafening bang as the air above exploded, and the Blue Typhoon re-materialized directly above the Egg Carrier.

Knuckles could do nothing but watch in shock.

* * *

The instant the ship exited from its Phase Jump, Tails was ready.

"Fire all dorsal thrusters!" He yelled, not letting go of the trigger that was firing the autocannons.

Short plumes of flame erupted from the entire dorsal top of the Blue Typhoon, and the cruiser lurched downward.

"Collision warning. Pull up." CP barely had time to say before the bottom of the Blue Typhoon's nose slammed into the front section of the Egg Carrier, and Tails was jolted in his restraints.

"Hull integrity compromised. Warning: Hull integrity-" Tails barely heard over the deafening scraping, ripping, and crunching of metal against metal as the two cruisers collided.

"All power to dorsal and rear thrusters! Everything! Disengage maglocks on my mark!" He yelled as the ship tilted to the left as more and more of it's surface met the Egg Carrier's dorsal hull plating.

* * *

Sonic stood in shock at the top of the ravine as the Blue Typhoon, immediately after transporting through thin air, made a full speed collision with the Egg Carrier in what could only be described as the aviation equivalent of a body slam. Sparks flew and explosions ripped through the hulls of both vessels, and still it didn't stop. The cruiser's engine burned brighter still as the front ventral stabilizing fin tore through the top hull of Eggman's ship like tissue paper, as both of them now began to lose altitude as the nose of the Typhoon came closer and closer to the command tower of the Carrier. Finally, after more than one hundred and fifty feet, the main engine of the Blue Typhoon gave out, and became nothing more than a huge weight on top of the Egg Carrier. Both ships would hit the ground in seconds. The Typhoon's runway began to crumple as it impacted with the Carrier's command tower, and at the last second, Sonic saw the X-Tornado rocket away from the Typhoon moments before both ships slammed into the swamp floor. Flames engulfed both ships, and Sonic's eyes were glued to the gold-plated jet as it gained altitude away from the wreck. His sigh of relief was interrupted when the command tower of the Egg Carrier disintegrated, and a bulbous mech launched up into the sky.

* * *

"All Death Robo Mk-2 systems online, Doctor." Bocoe reported as they put distance between themselves and the flaming wreck of the Egg Carrier.

"Not bad, fox boy. You think you're the only one who can pilot something bigger with something smaller? Let's see how much you've really improved. Arm all Interceptor Mk-2 Missiles." Eggman ordered, as he began locking on.

"All six missiles armed. Awaiting lock." Bocoe told him.

The targeting software on Eggman's screen slowly gained a lock as the X-Tornado came around and began to fire its guns at the mech.

"Shields at 95%." Decoe reported.

The steadily increasing tempo of beeps on Eggman's console gave way to a solid tone, indicating a lock.

"Fire."

* * *

Sonic saw six silver missiles launch out of the wrists of the robot, which resembled Eggman in both color scheme and figure. Sonic felt uneasy when he recognized the warhead design; those were Eggman's interceptor missiles; the targeting software wasn't fooled by any of Tails' countermeasures or maneuverability. It would track him until they hit. As the missiles quickly closed at the attacking jet, Tails rolled away at the last second and activated his afterburners, and the six missiles gave chase.

* * *

Eggman watched with glee as his new and improved designs on his already deadliest homing weapon slowly closed in on the X-Tornado. He saw the jet deploy countermeasures.

"Nice try, Tails. Even if you improved your defenses, these new missiles lock onto _you_ ; not your plane."

When the chaff canister exploded, he was surprised to see two of the missiles fall for it, dipping from their path and impacting with the cloud of shrapnel.

"What?! It was a solid lock on him!" Eggman frustratingly yelled.

"Both missiles report direct hit on target. He must have coated those countermeasures in his DNA." Bocoe chimed in.

"Clever fox..." Eggman mused as he saw the X-Tornado deploy four more countermeasures, and the four remaining missiles lost their tracking and exploded in the shrapnel clouds. The jet fired two missiles and pulled up to make another pass. The missiles slammed into the Death Robo's shields, exploding against them.

"Shields at 65%." Decoe reported.

"I know a good design when I see it. Deploy the Egg Driver Cannon!" Eggman ordered.

"Egg Driver deployed. Charging..." Bocoe said.

"Similar in design, but much more crude! Nothing like a magnetically-accelerated iron projectile to ruin your day..."

* * *

Sonic saw robotic hands move up into place from where the missiles had launched. The mech's arms reached up and back, and grabbed a large weapon that had been mounted on it's back. It looked strikingly similar to the Sonic Driver Cannon of the Blue Typhoon, but smaller in size.

Sonic stood, fists clenched. There was no way he could help from up here without rings, and the closest ground access to the swamp two hundred feet below was four miles away on the other end of the ravine.

The X-Tornado swung around, and made another firing run against the mech, and Sonic's concern grew when it just stood there, steadily aiming the cannon towards the approaching jet as its arsenal hit harmlessly against the energy shields.

"Tails... Tails break away! He's stalling, it's a trap! Tails!" Sonic screamed futilely.

* * *

"Shields at 55%... 50%..." Decoe updated.

"Not just yet... I'm through playing games with you." Eggman growled, as the X-Tornado continued to close. On his screen, his cross-hairs for the Driver Cannon were dead center with the jet's nose, which was not weaving or adjusting it's angle of attack in the slightest.

"45%... 35%..."

"Almost..." Eggman said. This shot had to be perfect, with absolutely no time to react.

"30%!"

"Goodbye, Prower." Eggman sneered, and pulled the trigger.

* * *

The report from Eggman's cannon overtook everything else in the vicinity. Whatever shot out of the barrel was impossibly fast; too fast for even Sonic to see, and eyes widened as there was a flash of light, and the X-Tornado exploded into flames in midair.

"TAILS!" Sonic screamed.

His legs grew weak, and he dropped to his knees as the wave of heat from the blast passed over him. Smoldering pieces of metal began falling to the swamp out of the plume of smoke and fire that hung in the sky at the point of impact. Tears welled up in the hedgehog's eyes as despair and anger jostled for control inside him.

His eyes caught something. A small golden glowing orb came _up_ out of the explosion... Then darted back inside. Then another... And another... None of them affected by gravity. They bobbed, hovered, and weaved, zipping in and out of the flames as the explosion slowly began to fall away. Sonic squinted at them to get a better look. Were those... Birds?

"What...?"


	12. A Fox's Fury, Part 2

The Fox and the Seedrian, A Taismo Story

Chapter Eleven: A Fox's Fury, Part 2

Sonic's eyes were no longer focused on the last flaming remnants of the X-Tornado as it descended to the swamp, but were instead fixated on the point of light that the yellow golden birds were flying circles around. It couldn't be... Could it...?

The brilliant light was suddenly drawn inward, and Sonic indeed saw Tails, floating there as the last of the flames and smoke cleared, glowing a brilliant golden yellow, and glaring down at Eggman's mech with fiery orange eyes.

"No way..." The hedgehog said to himself as relief washed over him. But it was true. His best buddy had done it. Tails had achieved a super state.

It didn't take Eggman long to deduce the situation either. His magnetic driver canon loaded up another projectile. The instant he fired, Tails extended his right fist, and the iron shot impacted against it and disintegrated harmlessly into dust. Without a word, Tails merely extended a finger from his fist, pointing down at the mech, and the four birds took off like a shot, descending towards it like four spiraling missiles. They slammed against the energy shield with such an unnatural force for creatures their size. The shield held, but they charged right back, hammering it into submission from all sides.

* * *

"Doctor, shields are collapsing! The hull is vulnera—"

The end of the sentence never came, as the four birds penetrated through the armor plating like it was nothing. Without stopping, two of the four went right for Decoe and Bocoe, shooting through their heads like a hot knife through butter. The two robots fell to the floor and all four birds flew effortlessly through consoles, circuitry, and plating, rendering the mech powerless as it sizzled, sparked, and smoked all around Eggman as his creation crashed to the ground of the swamp. In a brilliant flash, the cockpit canopy imploded, raining down debris onto him, trapping him against the back wall, as fire and smoke took over most of the cockpit.

Eggman began looking for a way to free his limbs from the pile of pipes, beams, and other debris, until his complete attention was given to the glowing, twin-tailed fox who came down and landed in the now open canopy of the mech, staring down at him, the four flickies now orbiting above his head, almost like a glowing halo.

"H-How?" Eggman asked frustratingly, coughing from the smoke rising from his machinery. "How were you able to harness the positive chaos energy when you are clearly so angry at me? You can't use that energy with all that hatred in your heart!"

Tails' pupils combined with his now-fiery irises made his eyes look like solar eclipses, as they glared down at Eggman.

"There's an ocean of difference between anger and hatred. Just as there is between love and lust. Do you know what love is, Doctor? Other than love for yourself? Have you ever loved anyone before? Anyone you've ever been willing to kill for? To die for? Or is the only thing you know your lust for power?"

Eggman stared silently in shock, unable to free himself from the burning wreckage. Tails stepped down into the smokey cockpit, four feet from the trapped scientist.

"What was it you said to me at 0-0-0? 'Do you want her sacrifice to be meaningless?'. Isn't that how you tried to convince me to fire? Because if I didn't, all of us, and every other living thing in the galaxy would die? Yet here you are, right back to your old tricks. What was her sacrifice going to be for this time? Your burning wreck of a ship at the bottom of this swamp? That would have led to, what, one conquered planet? The beginning of empire in your own image? Instead of the galaxy that she gave her life for the first time?"

"Tails, the cannon was automated, I didn't mean to—" The doctor pathetically pleaded.

"You know full well what I had to do to her to save us all. It was the hardest decision I have ever had to make in my entire life. I lost her once. I won't lose her again because of your delusional visions of conquest. You are never going to change. You know how I know that? Because you stared galactic annihilation in the face, and even that wasn't enough. If coming that close to death won't stop you of your own accord, then nothing will. Your reign of terror ends now."

Tails stepped forward, now directly in front of Eggman.

"And just so we're clear; I don't hate you, Doctor Eggman. I feel sorry for you. I pity you. Your brilliance is wasted. Take away your schemes, your weapons, and your machines..." Tails said, motioning in particular to the lifeless husks of Decoe and Bocoe.

"Take away all that... What and whom do you have left? Nothing and no one. You are completely and utterly alone, and that is pitiful. It's time for you to go... And you won't go as you are..."

Tails leaned down, and placed his hand on Eggman's head, and grasped as it began to glow.

"Ugggh... Gahhh! What are you doing to me?!" Eggman grunted in pain.

"The only thing I _can_ do to ensure you'll never hurt anyone again without having blood on my hands. Goodbye, Doctor."

His hand became an orb of blinding white light.

"Chaos... CONTROL!"

* * *

Up from Sonic's view, he saw Tails enter the canopy of Eggman's flaming wreck of a mech, and less than a minute later, there was a brilliant flash of light. Moments before the remains exploded, he saw the fox take off across the sky like a shooting star, back towards Topaz Harbor.

There would be no keeping up with him this time. As fast as he was, even Sonic knew there was no competing with the abilities that all seven chaos emeralds gave you. Speeding back towards where he was sure Tails was headed, he decided that he would deal with the rest of this as it came. The fox had been reckless, his brains and emotions constantly jockeyed for position throughout that heated battle, and it nearly cost him his life. Not that Sonic hadn't done similar things in the past; but now he knew how it felt to be helpless in watching a battle you couldn't contribute to in time. He didn't know whether to be relieved or angry. Right now, he was just glad his buddy was safe.

As the city skyline came into view, Sonic saw seven different colored beams of light erupt out into the sky from downtown, spreading in random directions. The seven chaos emeralds, their energy spent, spread out into the greater world, or galaxy again. Separating from each other as they had done for millennia.

Twenty minutes later, he screeched to a halt in front of Topaz Harbor Hospital's Emergency Room's doors, and jogged inside. He made his way to the Observation Unit, where he saw Amy standing with a couple doctors.

"Is everything okay?" Sonic asked, coming up to them.

"Well, apart from the fact that no one here was expecting a glowing fox to come floating through these halls, yeah. See for yourself." Amy told him, motioning to the door. One of the doctors there opened it for him, and Sonic took a step inside.

There was Tails, back to his normal state, in a chair at Cosmo's bedside. He was out like a light, head resting near Cosmo's hand. Nothing sapped the energy out of you like a super state, that was for sure. One of the doctor's came in quietly behind him. Sonic looked at Cosmo, and she looked... Completely fine. The bandages on her head had been removed, and there was no evidence of any wound. Her right leg had been removed from the cast, as well.

"He came in, all glowing and fiery, and just... Touched them. Her head wound and her leg. They healed instantly." The doctor told him. Sonic continued looking at the sleeping fox and seedrian. Chaos Regeneration had many applications. He had performed a similar ability with Chris after the battle with Eggman's Egg Emperor right before the second chaos control event, though he had been less severely hurt.

Sonic looked at the clock on the wall.

"Let's let them be for now. It won't be long until morning." Sonic said, turning and walking back out into the hallway. He stepped towards his fiance, who looked at him with a mix of relief and worry.

"Eggman...?" She asked succinctly. Sonic shook his head, shrugging his shoulders once.

"I don't know." He began, looking back at the closed door to Cosmo's room.

"He'll have to tell us in the morning."

With that, Sonic pulled Amy into a hug, one she gratefully returned.

For the first time, in a very long time, he hoped there were calmer days ahead.

* * *

Sonic and Amy spent the rest of the night getting what sleep they could in the chairs outside Cosmo's room. The hedgehogs awoke to a hand on each of their shoulders. One of the third shift doctors came to wake them up. Cosmo also stood there with another physician.

"We're taking her for a final evaluation, then she'll be good to go. Tails is still waking up in there, he's a bit groggy, but not sure how much energy he used last night; the medicinal properties of chaos energy have never been researched. We'll be back in a few moments."

Sonic thanked them with a nod, and they were off down the hall with Cosmo in tow, walking completely on her own power. The two of them got out of their chairs with a stretch, Amy walked down the hall to accompany Cosmo, and Sonic walked into the room she had occupied for the night, where Tails was standing, awake, at the side of the bed, holding her pendant thoughtfully.

"Morning, pal. I'm sure you got a good night's sleep." Sonic greeted, letting the door close behind him.

Tails looked up at him, the slightest of smiles on his face, then his gaze returned to the Polaris pendant in his hands.

"I'm just glad she's okay." He said softly, running his thumb over the diamond.

Sonic took a few more steps into the room, closer to the fox. He glanced up again, noticing the scabbed slit on the bottom left corner of the hedgehog's lip.

"Sonic... I'm not apologizing for anything. I'm not sorry for what I did."

"What did you do to him?" Sonic asked, having been wondering his nemesis' fate since he saw the explosion last night.

"I didn't kill him, if that's what you're afraid of. I sent him back to where he came from." Tails told him.

"Back to where he... To Chris' world? You sure they have the means of dealing with someone like him?" Sonic asked.

"They won't need to."

"What makes you so sure?"

"Because I took away the one thing he's abused since he got here; his intelligence. When they find him, he won't be able to engineer a single weapon, or design, or robot again. He won't hurt anyone ever again. If you feel differently about the situation... I don't know what to say, then."

Sonic stepped up to him.

"Tails, we've known each other for a long time. Each of us has grown a lot over the years, and I think I've grown more, simply because I've had more growing up to do. I know you've spent years looking up to me, but in some ways, you're more capable than I am, even back then. And for the record; you're absolutely right. If it had been Amy laying here in front of us, I probably would have done the same thing. I don't know if I could have held back the way you did, either. If he hurt her, I probably would have been content to watch him burn to death in his machine. So I'm proud of you, for standing up for what you believed in, and for putting someone like me in my place when it was called for. But... There is one thing you need to apologize for."

With that, he came forward and pulled him into a tight hug, placing a hand on the back of his head. Tails' defiance wavered when he felt Sonic's body shudder.

"You need to apologize because you're my best friend," He began whispering into Tails' ear. "And you've always, _always_ known when to ask for my help. You've never experienced a super state before, so you couldn't have been absolutely _certain_ that it was going to work, and if... If it didn't work..." Sonic paused, his voice shaking and shoulders heaving.

Tails didn't need him to finish. If it hadn't worked, he'd be buried in the swamp under the remains of his plane, and probably in just as many pieces too.

"I was terrified for a second that I was going to have to dig you out of there, and then come back here and tell Cosmo that something had happened to you. I never, _ever_ , want to feel that way again, you hear me?"

At this moment, Tails realized that in his laser-focused rage against Eggman, he had never considered how Cosmo would feel if that fight had gone any other way. In looking to protect her from any more danger, he forgot about protecting himself. He had been unbelievably lucky. With this realization, he brought his arms up and returned Sonic's hug.

"You're right, Sonic... You're right. I'm so sorry."

They stood there, holding each other for a few moments, grateful that everything had worked out.

* * *

Tails woke up to the morning sunrise on his face, sitting up with a yawn. Looking at the clock, he realized that it wasn't the morning sun, but the high noon sun coming in from the skylight. He panicked and ran outside to his backyard, not believing he had overslept again.

"Hey there, sleepyhead. I was wondering when you were going to get up." Cosmo said, who was watering the flowers on the outer edges of the garden.

"Yeah, sorry! I've been staying up late getting more of those adaptive polarity panels made so I can finally get to work on the new house. I gotta do this pre-flight check pretty quick or we're gonna be late for your appointment!" Tails said, running over to the hangar, where the Tornado 2 was currently parked.

It had been a month since the final fight with Eggman, and since then, things had been unbelievably peaceful. Topaz Harbor Hospital had arranged weekly checkups with Cosmo, because they were keen on learning more about Seedrian physiology, something Cosmo happily agreed to. When they weren't at Amy's, they were up here, where Tails was down in his gargantuan underground plant, where the Blue Typhoon had been built, where he was manufacturing enough of the special panels he'd need to build their new house. Since the X-Tornado's destruction in the Mystic Ruins swamp, the Tornado 2 had also been put back into service, and was the primary method of transportation to get Cosmo to her weekly hour-long physical.

Tails quickly performed what checks he needed, called his fiance to let him know everything was ready, Cosmo set her watering can to the side, and joined him in the cockpit. She had grown more accustomed to flying since she started riding in the Tornado 2; feeling the wind on her face made her much less prone to flying sickness than in the closed cockpits she had flown in before.

"So how's your project coming along?" Tails asked once they were in the air.

"It's coming along great. By next summer, you'll won't even realize that anything came barging through at all." Cosmo told him.

While Tails was busy manufacturing pieces for their future home, Cosmo had made herself busy in the Green Forest, planting seeds and saplings where Eggman's hauler had plowed through. She only helped them grow a little at a time; she remembered what happened when she lost control of the plants during their fight against the Metarex.

"Oh, and you don't mind putting off making any more panel pieces, do you? Amy wanted to know if we wanted to come back for dinner. She's got a new recipe she'd like to try with me." Cosmo asked.

"Sure thing. A day off sounds nice. We've been keeping ourselves pretty busy with our pet projects and these doctor appointments."

A half hour later, they had the X-Tornado landed and taxied at Topaz Harbor Airfield, and together, they walked the short distance downtown. They went through the front doors to Admission, where they had made their scheduled appointment with just four minutes to spare. Cosmo's appointed research physician, a badger in medical scrubs and white overcoat, met them in the hallway a few moments after they had gotten themselves signed in at the front desk.

"Hello again, Cosmo. Hello, Tails. We have news." The badger said.

Tails' and Cosmo's curiosity was piqued.

"I'm not sure if you two have caught on, but we've had something of an... Ulterior motive to these routine checkups and tests."

"What do you mean?" Tails asked.

"Well, as we've told you, we know next to nothing about Seedrian physiology, so we wanted to be absolutely sure of our theory before we gave you any false hope. And now, thanks to last week's sonogram examination, we're pretty much certain."

"Certain of what? What's wrong?" Cosmo asked, worriedly. The badger chuckled and smiled at the two of them.

"Nothing. In fact, I think congratulations are in order for the two of you. We believe you're pregnant, Miss Cosmo."

* * *

 **A/N: Just about ready to wrap things up here. There's just one more area that has a loose end to tie up, and that might take a little more than a day, so I'll get it out as soon as I can. As always, thanks for reading and let me know what you've thought of this story so far!**


	13. What We Leave Behind

The Fox and the Seedrian, A Taismo Story

Chapter Twelve: What We Leave Behind

Chris Thorndyke peered up at the sky, as he walked through Station Square Cemetery on this beautiful spring day. Squirrels played in the trees and birds chirped the early afternoon away as people came to pay their respects to their departed loved ones. It seemed like the perfect day to do so.

If only he had felt as perfect. To feel even remotely close would've been nice. But he hadn't in a long time. Not in over 12 years, since he returned home, and not as he expected. Because of the time dilation between their two dimensions, Chris, at the time, had reverted from 18 years old back to 12. It was theorized that the Master Emerald he passed through compensated for the dilation by "holding" on to those six years. Years that were apparently lost when the emerald shattered upon the Blue Typhoon's driver cannon taking the final shot at Dark Oak.

It was unexpected, but at the same time, oddly comforting. In a way, Cosmo and Shadow hadn't been the only sacrifices; he'd paid his part for victory as well. The most awkward part was coming back six years younger, as Dr. Eggman had warned might happen. Not only that, but in the three months that he had been fighting the Metarex with Sonic and company, three more years had passed on Earth. So when he returned physically at 12 years of age, all of his closest friends were 21.

He adapted as best he could, but nine years difference between you and your best friends created some unavoidably awkward social situations. As a consequence, his fledgling relationship with Helen crumbled, he began slowly drifting away, focusing more on his work, and wondering if the opportunity would ever present itself where he could go back again, because if he was honest with himself, sometimes it felt like he wasn't meant to come back here at all. Even now, twelve years later, he was physically 24, and his friends were in their 30's. Things were a tad less awkward, but by now it felt like they were distant friends, instead of getting together every day like they used to.

He turned up a path to the left, where the trees were a tad more plentiful. Having memorized the rows years ago, he knew exactly where to go. He stepped off the path onto the grass, taking care to keep his distance from the graves, passing a dozen or so before coming to the one he had come to visit; by far the greatest shock upon returning home. He looked down at the tombstone.

CHUCK THORNDYKE

1945-2008

In Earth time, his grandfather had passed away from inoperable cancer six months before he returned home, and it had hit him incredibly hard. Not only was his grandfather the family he was the absolute closest to, but he had not been here when they laid him to rest. It had taken him years to come to terms with that, and it still weighed heavy on his heart with every visit here. But he felt he owed it to him to visit often.

"Hey, Grandpa. I'm not sure if you're looking down here or not, but... Dr Eggman came out of nowhere yesterday morning..."

* * *

 _He remembered exactly where he was; he was in his basement lab when the television went to breaking news._

" _We interrupt your regularly scheduled programming to bring you this special report. The nefarious scientist Doctor Ivo "Eggman" Robotnik, responsible for the series of terror attacks on Station Square more than 12 years ago, has suddenly re-materialized without explanation. He appeared wounded, but alive. GUN agents were quick to surround and apprehend him within the hour, and for now, report that he's apparently suffering from some kind of amnesia. Dr. Eggman has been taken to a secure location. As of this report, a GUN spokesperson tells us that absolutely nothing else from that alternate dimension has materialized, and that the threat of the two worlds merging and time coming to a standstill are not present. We'll bring you more as it develops."_

 _Chris recalled how they had discovered how Eggman was originally from this world, as was his lineage. If he had been sent back here more than twelve years later, that would be just over a year in Sonic's time, and that would mean that even with the threat of the Metarex, that he had gone right back to his old tricks and schemes._

" _Time, location, people... Destiny decides the fate of all things." He was told shortly before leaving. Chris wasn't so sure about destiny anymore. How someone like Cosmo could be destined to death for the sake of everyone else. He often wondered if Tails had managed to cope with that loss, if the seed had culminated in anything significant._

 _He remembered the last thing he asked the doctor, about destiny._

" _You giving me a one-way ticket home is also destiny?"_

 _His response had resonated with him even now, more than a decade later._

" _If you want to change it into a round trip ticket, then you have to work for it yourself!"_

 _And so he had worked. As he had struggled to get on with his life after returning home in a 12-year old's body, he also set his transportation device to passively scan for a link between the worlds that could be used to return, and for twelve years, it had come up with nothing._

 _Until Eggman returned that one morning. The scanner returned a positive result; initiating Chaos Control to open a portal to Sonic's world would be possible for approximately 48 hours, before the link would become too weak to maintain._

* * *

Chris began to tear up, knowing this was the last time he was going to be able to do this. He had already made up his mind falling asleep last night.

"Growing up, you were always there for me when no one else was..."

Tears fell from his eyes.

"...So not being here when you left us... That's the biggest regret I will ever have in my life. Because I always had a feeling you'd be the one to understand how everything we saved was worth the risk I took, and the six years I lost. Just like how I hope that you'd understand what I'm going to do now."

Not finding anymore words, he wiped his eyes, and began to walk back the way he came. There were a few more stops to make.

* * *

Helen heard her doorbell, and made her way to the door, glancing at the clock. It was 5:00. It would be time to start dinner soon. She maneuvered her wheelchair to the front door, and opened the it to a familiar face.

"Hey." Chris greeted.

"Hey there. It's... Been awhile." Helen replied.

"Yeah. I take it you've heard about Eggman?" Chris asked, referring to yesterday's breaking news that had been making the rounds of every broadcast since.

Helen nodded.

"Yeah, after all this time..." Helen said, rolling out onto the front porch, while Chris took a seat on the bench against the exterior wall.

"I just wanted to stop by, to say..."

Chris looked down at Helen's porch. Things hadn't been the same between them in a decade.

"I found out yesterday that Eggman's sudden reappearance as temporarily strengthened the link between the two dimensions. My transporter can initiate a portal to Sonic's world for another six hours. I... I came to tell you that I'm going back." He told her.

Helen looked at him silently for a few moments.

"You're serious... What, so you can come back as a 12 year old kid again?" She asked, a hint of incredulity in her voice.

"Actually, this time, it... It would be a one-way trip. Although I like to see it as a round trip ticket twelve years in the making." He said, looking over to her.

"Chris..." She began to say.

"I've made up my mind, Helen."

"I know you have, you wouldn't have told me otherwise. Chris, I know how much of an effect they had on your life, but... You're talking about walking away from your whole family, again..."

"A family who changed suddenly and then slowly went back to their old ways. A family who never understood what happened over there; the one who did died while I was gone, and a part of me still hasn't gotten over it. Helen... If I don't do this, I'm afraid that I'm going to regret it for the rest of my life. I feel like I wasn't supposed to come back in the first place. Through Eggman, Mobius has seen nothing but one of the worst sides of humanity. Maybe it's time they see a better side. I really feel like this is the right choice."

"And if it's not?" Helen asked him, wanting to make sure that he'd absolutely thought his decision through.

"Then I'll have some of the best company in making the best situation out of the wrong choice. Including you, if you want to come along."

Helen's eyes widened. He _was_ serious.

"On the craziest of days, I can imagine you walking away from everything to start a new life there, but me...?"

"That night when he took you to that island with the flowers? I know that's your favorite childhood memory. What if you could have a second chance at that childhood? Or even half of it?"

"Chris..."

"I know I'm asking you to decide what dimension you want to live in for the rest of your life in a two hour window. I've already asked Danny and Frances, they're not interested, but have wished me luck. I won't judge you no matter what you decide. If you want to come with, I'd love to have you along... I thought it could maybe be a chance for you and I to start over. And if not... Then I wanted to say I'm sorry. Because I ran off last time without telling anyone, then I came back after what was three years to all of you, and I slowly began drifting away, from my family, from my friends, from you... I'm sorry. For everything."

Chris slowly got up from the bench.

"The link is going to be stable until 8:00. I'm leaving at 7:00, just to be on the safe side. So, yeah... Whatever you want to do."

He knelt down, leaned forward, and hugged her briefly, then got to his feet.

"Bye, Helen."

With that, he departed down the front walk, got in his car, gave one last wave, and drove off.

* * *

Chris stood in front of the shimmering rainbow portal that would take him across a dimension. Aside from the low thrums of the generator, the portal was silent, so he had no trouble hearing the ding of the elevator coming to the basement. He turned to look, and saw the doors open to reveal Helen, in her wheelchair holding a backpack. She moved forward into his laboratory, and came up to him in front of the transporter. He smiled at her.

"Always focusing on the big picture and missing the small details, I see." She said, glancing at the digital clock on the desk, reading 6:52. Next to it, sat an envelope, no doubt his letter to the people he was leaving behind. She tossed the backpack at him, and he unzipped it, seeing the contents; child's clothes.

"Oh, right." He said with a chuckle. He dug a little deeper, and saw something more; multiple sets of clothes for a teenage girl in differing sizes. He looked up at Helen.

"So what does this mean?" He asked.

"It means that I didn't know what size to get because your equation for the time dilation is off. Yes, it's a factor of twelve, but you're forgetting about the six years you lost, as well as the three years that passed when you were gone. You'll be physically 13, but me? I could be 13, or 19, or... Who knows? That's part of the adventure after all, right?"

He smiled at her.

"Are you sure about this?"

"Now look who's asking who who's sure. You're right... That night with Sonic was the most exciting of my childhood. But I'm not going just for him. No doubt he's got his own life to worry about over there..."

She moved over to Chris' desk, and dropped off her own sealed letter, addressed to her parents, and Danny and Frances.

"I'm going because I don't want to be a dimension apart from you. I don't want to be long gone after you've been there barely five or six years." Helen said, coming up to him in front of the portal.

"Besides... It's not every day you get to wind the clock back twelve years."

Chris took her hand in his.

"Although you'll forgive me if I wait awhile before giving us a second chance over there, depending on what happens when we go through. A 19-year old dating a 13-year old... That's a little weird, isn't it?"

Chris laughed.

"In physical terms, maybe." He responded.

"I've still got three years on you thanks to your little adventure across their galaxy." Helen shot back.

Chris took one more look at the clock on the desk.

6:55.

"You ready?" He said, slinging the backpack over his shoulder.

Helen looked up at him.

"No one's going to come down here in the next hour?"

"It'll shut down once we pass through. Once we're there, it'll be a matter of minutes only before transport becomes impossible." He told her.

They both looked at the shimmering portal, and squeezed the others hand.

"Let's do it." Helen said confidently.

Each of them taking a deep breath, they stepped forward.


	14. Epilogue

The Fox and the Seedrian: A Taismo Story

Epilogue

"Would you floor it already? We're gonna be late." Helen told Chris as he handled their vehicle's controls.

"It's a flight stick-controlled, rudderless hovercraft, I can't 'floor' anything." Chris said, maneuvering over the Emerald Hills towards Tails' workshop, glancing over to the 13-year old teenager sitting next to him.

"I still maintain that you can't drive, even in this dimension." Helen teased.

"I've spent the last nine months researching what was left of Eggman's tech, building prototypes, so I should take them for test drives." Chris shot back as they crested the next hill, bringing the workshop into view.

"If only you could test drive to places on time." Helen said with a laugh as they pulled onto the runway, parking to the right of the hangar entrance. Chris extended the landing struts, cut the engine, and got out, as did Helen. Since coming here nearly ten months ago, Sonic was able to track down two chaos emeralds, and use a weaker version of Chaos Regeneration to help the 13-year old Helen gain the use of her legs again, and while she required metal braces while she got used to walking for the first time in twenty years, her leg muscles were beginning to develop again. It was by far the greatest gift she got by coming here.

Going around the left side, they walked in front of Tails' and Cosmo's new home; a dwelling built nearly entirely of panels whose polarity could be adjusted, blocking either 100% of the natural light, letting in a certain amount as a greenhouse would, or letting it entirely in, as a completely clear glass building. Although it unnerved Tails a bit, being inside during a thunderstorm was incredible; hearing the raindrops, the thunder, and seeing the lightning, it was an experience of it's own.

They walked around the building and came to the backyard, which hosted a spectacular, multi-ringed garden, with a tree in the middle.

"About time you two got here." Amy greeted, coming out of the back door with plates and cups. Cosmo came out behind her with a serving bowl full of salad, a bowl of chips, and Sonic and Tails stood at the grill, looking over chili dogs. Sonic wore a sapphire, quartz, and diamond engagement ring, Cosmo wore a white gold pendant on her neck, and all four of them had gold wedding bands on their ring fingers. They had apparently missed the wedding by no more than a week. The four of them had somehow convinced Knuckles to preside over a double ceremony at the Shrine of the Master Emerald before Angel Island headed too far away from the Mystic Ruins. Sonic and Amy kept their names as is, and Cosmo, having been born and given a single name, happily took Prower as her last name.

Sonic and Amy currently had no immediate plans for a family, but Cosmo was appearing heavily pregnant. It had been quite an adventure for the duo, as neither of them knew anything about how long seedrian gestation periods lasted. For that reason, it didn't matter if Mobius had known peace for an entire year, Tails kept the Tornado 2 fueled at all times, just waiting for when the moment would come. What they did know, thanks to Cosmo's doctors at Topaz Harbor Hospital, was that the fetus had a mix of seedrian and mobian DNA. They offered to tell the two of them the gender, but they wanted to be surprised when the time came. So far, there had been no complications, and the baby was, as far as they could tell, completely healthy.

"Have you two thought of any names?" Helen asked Cosmo and Tails, taking their seats at the patio table as the fox brought over the plate of chili dogs, with Sonic carrying the toasted buns and Amy beginning to pour the lemonade.

"Well, we've settled on Lily if it's a girl. We're still having trouble with a boy's name."

With the table set, everyone sat down to a very scrumptious looking patio picnic. They all raised their glasses of lemonade to the center of the table. All eyes, of course, on Sonic as the toaster.

"Well buddy, here's to two years, with friends old and new. Can't wait to see how your garden looks on the third."

* * *

High above the surface, in Earth's low orbit, the recently re-commissioned Bernal sphere colony ARK made it's pass over the southern hemisphere. On board, the finest scientific and military minds of GUN went about their duties. In the central command unit, several uniformed personnel made their way through a series of checkpoints, into a conference room, with a single table, with monitors on all the walls, giving station telemetry, speed, and other current statistics.

At the head of the table sat the commander for all operations aboard the ARK, a highly decorated member of the military, who acknowledged the four members of this meeting as they took their seats.

"Gentlemen, ladies, you've been called here because you're all experts in your field, and have been tasked with determining one thing; is this 'Chaos Control' phenomenon over? First of all, Dr. Ivo Robotnik, otherwise known as Eggman; his presence here won't bring the two worlds closer together? Freeze time as was threatened over a decade ago?" He asked the researcher to the left of him at the table.

"I don't believe so, sir. He has a birth certificate here, so one could argue that he belongs here in the first place. As for whether he was sent here on accident, by himself, or by someone else, I don't believe we'll figure that out."

"Because of his amnesia?"

"Yes. He has no idea who he is. Names, pictures... None of it is familiar to him. Our best memory enhancing drugs have had absolutely no effect. Not only that, but it seems that his intelligence has been severely reduced as well. My team's strongest theory is that he was sent here purposefully, because he was originally from here, and to ensure he wouldn't be any threat to us in the future, his genius was severely hampered and his memory erased, through means that quite frankly, escape us."

"And you believe he's here for good?"

"Yes. He was the only thing that came through. No other technology or energy from that dimension. Very few people have the knowledge of Chaos Control, let alone how to initiate it, and even then, a link between the dimensions has to be possible."

"Yes, which brings us to our next item. The two disappearances fourteen days ago; Helen Noriko and Christopher Thorndyke, one of the aforementioned experts on Chaos Control. They've vanished, with the only trace of them being letters to their family and friends. If they've gone over to that alternate dimension, there's no reason to believe that their being over there would have any adverse affects?" The commander asked, this one being directed to the female scientist to his right.

"I don't believe so. The trigger for bringing the worlds closer together seems to be the mobians, not humans. Eggman was over there for at least twenty years before the first Chaos Control phenomenon, with no ill effects on our world."

"I also understand there's some kind of time dilation in effect?" The general said, turning to another member of the meeting.

"Yes, sir. Without moving too far into a debate on temporal paradoxes and points of view; from over here, time seems to move twelve times faster over there. So in the two weeks those two have been gone, it would be roughly only 56 hours for them. Their letters they left their families lead us to believe that this was a one-way trip on their part. Combine that with the time dilation effect, and I believe the chances of us seeing them again are slim to none. Barring any otherworldly factors, it's safe to assume that everything is going to be staying where it is for the foreseeable future."

* * *

ARK Prisoner-0001

That was the only identity he knew now. Anything that came before was hollow space. Black. Unknown. The pictures and newspaper articles spread out across the table did absolutely nothing for him. The only familiar thing about them was the man that looked just like him when he looked in the mirror above his sink. Everything else... The older man... The young woman... The blue creature with the gloves and red sneakers... None of that meant anything to him.

It was terrifying a first, but then he began to think that perhaps there was a reason for this; a reason he had forgotten absolutely everything. He had a life before; his less-than-youthful appearance in the mirror was evidence enough of that. The fact that he was a prisoner, behind bars, under 24-hour watch must have meant that he had hurt others. Maybe it was best that he couldn't recall the details. Perhaps this was his destiny.

Still... There was the periodic torture of not knowing. But then, at other times, there was hope. Every time he looked into that mirror above his sink, he couldn't help but wonder about the possibilities of what had been...

Hoping that the aging man staring back at him had accomplished something worthwhile in his life.

* * *

 **A/N: Well dear readers, there you have it. If you've been waiting for the story in its entirety before leaving any comments or feedback, now is your time. Thanks again, and I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.**


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